Mine
by Rhaegal Nymeria Stark
Summary: To keep Bella safe, Jane may have to turn against her own Master, Aro. Let the Rebellion Begin, and pray our lovers survive. Jane is desperate to protect her mate. This chapter will be the last before the next story.
1. Jane Changes

**Note: Okay, I apparently can't stop even though I should. Once again, here's another chapter**

**What I Want Is You: Chapter Three:**

**Jane's POV:**

Smirking is something I love doing. It's so rare that I do it too. Usually I'm glaring dangerously or scowling. Usually I don't have a reason to show any other look. The only times in the past when I've had anything even remotely close to a smile while being a vampire, is when I'm either torturing someone or with my brother Alec and Aro, my master.

And yet I can't help but almost smile in triumph at the memory of how Bella's voice wavered the last time she said that she would resist me always. I know, I know that every time I come to her, every time we spend the days and nights together…..I can tell…..I'm wearing down on her resistance.

She wants to remain virtuous and moral. And I realize that that's all the more reason why I love her so.

She's such a contradiction, isn't she? She's so willful and yet there's such a temptation in her to break. She's so innocent. Yet I can see the vice. I can see the desire to destroy and tempt. She was practically the reincarnation of Eve herself. No, no, that's not right. Eve gave in so easily to the serpent. Eve could never be so tempting. Eve more than easily gave into temptation. She was worthless.

Bella….No, she is far superior to any and all religious and mythological beings. Her resistance to all temptations and the desires she holds to do good is so great, and yet the desire to cause damage and corrupt is almost palpable.

She truly wants to be a good "person," and please her family; the Cullen vampire coven. She has such a guilty conscience, it's not even funny.

But then, there's that other part that makes me feel that if I were still alive, my heart would skip a beat at the thought of. It is very true, she is virtuous and wants to continue to be virtuous, but at the same time, she wants to hurt people. She wants to sleep around with dozens of vampires. She wants to rip the throats out of dozens of humans, specifically the wolf-shifter humans.

Bella will of course deny that she has such thoughts. She'll deny that she wants to be sexually ravaged by many vampires, both male and female vampires alike. She'll deny that she'll want to rip out Jacob Black's throat and heart with her bare hands.

And it makes me grin even wider at the thought of how much she would deny those truths about herself.

I also smirk at times when I think about her and my relationship. She'll deny that as well of course. Oh will she deny it! And of course that idiot of a vampire, Edward Cullen will believe it in a second. He'll never believe that his sweet and innocent little Bella could ever be in a relationship with another woman, let alone Jane Volturi of all vampires.

He won't even need to hear Bella call me a liar to believe that I am one. Edward is such a naïve fool that he'll immediately jump to the conclusion that I'm a liar anyway without Bella's accusation.

Ah, Edward. So stupid. So Naïve. So chivalrous that he can't realize a lie that's been going on for _years _now.

The funny thing is, if he cared at all about Bella, he would let her go. He is so obsessed with his idea of a "perfectBella" that he can't see the _real_ Bella.

He might not be able to. But I can.

I can see who Bella is as clear as the daylight that exposes our diamond hard skin.

And I love who she is. With all of my cold, evil, undead heart. There's the difference between Edward and myself. If Edward knew what really makes Bella happy…..Well, he'd back away, calling her a "harlot" faster than my brother and I could slaughter a human.

I on the other hand, upon seeing Bella for who and what she is, am putty in Bella's hands. It could be anything and I would do it for her. Aside from abandoning my coven and brother, anyway.

Isn't it funny? Bella would be the perfect Volturi guard. She has all that is required, really. Strong willed, dedicated, loyal…..Oh, more than anything else that's important to the Volturi, it's loyalty. And she's powerful and from what I've learned from her, she's become a good fighter under the lessons of the war vampire, the empath called Jasper.

What's more, she's loving and compassionate. You'd be surprised what those types of traits would do for a vampire coven. Esme Cullen, I'll admit is very important to the Cullen family. Far more than just that fool Carlisle Cullen's mate. All of the Cullen "children" love her. She is the heart of the family. She keeps them together. I can tell.

One like Bella in our Volturi family would bring us even closer together than we already are.

We once had someone like that in our family. Didyme. She meant everything to my "father figure," Marcus and to my brother and I.

Bella would mean just as much to us, and I suspect to the rest of our coven. She's already brought such pleasantly unexpected reactions from my family.

Speaking of my family, every one of them knows that I've been sneaking off to see Bella. And they have remarked that they look forward to the day that I bring her to them to join us. The thing that actually makes my dead heart almost swell, (if I didn't know any better) is that these expectations and remarks are genuine.

Demetri, Afton, Santiago, Felix, Rufus, Oliver and Corin tease me. Playfully dramatize everything that I think about in terms of Bella. Joke about how silly I can be. A few jolts of my torturous power shuts them up fast. Despite their remarks and my torture, I know they're being as nice as….Well….As well as Demetri, Afton, Santiago, Felix, Rufus, Oliver and Corin can be, anyway. They're my brothers. Isn't that what brothers are supposed to do?

When it's Heidi, Chelsea, Aleena, Bianca, Rachel and Renata, it's of course so, so much harder to use my dangerous gift on them. They actually make an effort to sound sincere in what they say. In truth, I think they were all worried about me.

I saw what was between Afton and Chelsea and knew that Chelsea had sometimes worried about how angry and distrustful I was, thinking that I would never let someone into my heart. I also could see the way Heidi and Felix looked at each other when they thought no one except Aro and Marcus were looking.

I know what Heidi feels for that big idiot lug of a vampire. And I know what Aleena feels for Corin, though she doesn't like talking about it.

So, needless to say, a great deal of my sisters have worried for me when it comes to romantic issues. They all were afraid that I'd never let anyone close enough to me, resulting in being completely cut off from being in love. They are clearly overjoyed that that is not the case.

But the worst isn't even my siblings, no. The worst is someone I know too well.

The most embarrassing of my coven is still, and I assume always will be my master and leader, Aro Volturi. He has been delighted that I finally found a mate to fall in love with since he first read Felix's thoughts when we returned from investigating the "Newborn Army" years ago.

Aro still smiles joyously whenever he touches me and senses the thoughts that I have about Bella.

He praises me, tells me that he is so happy for me that I've finally fallen in love. In truth, I can't say I entirely blame him. He, like the rest of my family, have worried that I would never find a mate. The fact that I actually showed interest alone makes them happy.

When it comes to Bella, actually, they're all fairly curious too. Aro of course has always been rather fond of her. He, I know would more than happily welcome her to our family. Though I'm sure the fact that she was able to win my love has a great deal to do with that. Felix actually seems to look forward to having another "little sister" in the family. All his….For lack of better words, "inappropriate" remarks about Bella have been washed away these past few years as he sees how I act around the castle.

Demetri, Afton, Aleena, Rachel and actually everyone now, even Caius are becoming increasingly curious and open to the idea of Bella being with us. The guards that protect the outer walls of the city, Zach, Kyle and Robert, when they found out were open to hearing, and Zach and Kyle actually loved the idea of Bella joining us.

Naturally, Robert, being Robert just had to say something. Luckily, Felix was right there and smashed his fist into him before that idiot could say anything else and I had to send him to the ground screaming with my power.

Well, Robert is an idiot, nothing else.

Now, besides trying to get Bella to join us, there was one more issue at hand. Renesmee. Bella's daughter.

To tell you the truth, that little brat has kind of grown on me.

The more Bella tells me about her, the more I feel enticed to look after the kid too. I know it kind of sounds like I was guilted into worrying about her, but the moment I found out that that….God damn wolf shifter, Jacob Black had imprinted on her daughter….Well, let's just say I've been taking my anger more and more out on innocent humans who've done nothing to me.

Bear in mind though, that I've actually changed since my visits with Bella. The more and more time I spend with her and hold her in my arms, the more I have her up against a wall as I push my knee between her legs, the more times I practically ravish her in the woods….And she complies all too willingly, I've changed from how I used to be, and I know it.

Hell, if I didn't see it, my Volturi family sure as hell has. Hence the annoying praises. The rest of my family of course can see how I've changed, seen me even out more and more over these past years. I find it really funny that me, Jane Volturi, a vampire that has had almost fifteen centuries to change has only gotten worse and worse over time.

If anything, instead of taking the fifteen centuries to change and become a "better person" over time so that I wasn't as sadistic or murderous, I allowed my hate, rage and bitterness to get to me and became even more of a monster than most vampires.

And yet these past three to four years have made me a new vampire.

And it's all because of this young, beautiful, kind and willful vampire woman.

There are times when I've wondered if she's more of a vampire than I am, even though I've of course have been around for so, so much longer. She can affect me so easily, without even lifting a finger. I almost feel like I'm a human again, being seduced by a tempting vampire.

Then again, I realized I felt like that since the moment I first met Bella, and she was a blasted _human_ when she started tempting this vampire!

My changes have been noticed by all of my fellow Volturi. They have all seen the changes and are delighted to see them. I roll my eyes at how now my family is less cautious around me, is willing to be around me more and more and actually be more affectionate to me without fear of my gift as much. I'll admit, a few years ago, that would have enraged me beyond nothing else. Now though, it is rather pleasant for me too, since the more I think about it, the more I realized that I was just lonely before.

It was true. I was surrounded by my Volturi family and they all loved me, I know that. And they weren't afraid to hold me and treat me like their little sister before, but I think they saw that there was a barrier there that isn't there anymore. Whether Bella knows it or not, she got rid of my barriers.

There's a warmth here in me that definitely wasn't there before.

Naturally, Alec , my other half has seen everything and reads my changes like a book. I can see the satisfied smile on his face as he sees the ice that's always been surrounding my heart has melted over the years.

Hugging me from behind once, he tells me that he constantly wished that I would warm up and not have a "stick up the ass" as Felix calls it. I know that there are serious times when Alec worried that all these centuries of me killing humans and torturing other vampires had started to seriously weigh on me.

He's always known that while I'm the perfect guard for the Volturi and am emotionless while feeding on my prey and torturing my victims, he's seen the scars on my dead heart, knowing how much this "lifestyle" has affected me. I know that in his eyes, Bella has "helped" me, and he's utterly grateful to her for it.

I actually find myself smiling now. Really smiling. I can even feel the cold shield around my heart crack and fall apart. There's only one thing that would make this perfect. Bella and her daughter joining us.

And the bad part is, I know that that won't happen for a very long, long, _long _time.

Believe me, I've been trying.

I've offered, I've bargained, I've begged, I've tempted. I've told her that she would have plenty of power in the Volturi family, and that her daughter would be protected. I pleaded with her, telling her that I loved her (yes I actually told her) and told her I was lonely. She didn't listen. I could see that she was affected by my confession but she didn't budge on her opinion of my family.

"_Your family feeds on humans." _Is always the defense that Bella has for refusing me.

Yes, that was true. My family does feed on humans. My family drains humans dry. There are piles of human corpses that we need to dispose of weekly due to our feeding habits. Luckily we have safe passageways in our castle where we can hide and get rid of the remains.

This has always been and I suspect always will be a serious issue for my Bella.

She met the Cullens first. She loved them first. She got used to their feeding lifestyle first. In her mind, feeding on animals instead of humans is the best way.

I almost scowl at that thought. The Cullen coven have kept Bella naïve. They've made her foolish. They are the biggest fools themselves, really. They know that feeding on animals instead of humans for a long amount of time makes vampires incredibly weak, at least, next to vampires that feed on humans.

The Cullens have kept her weak. They've made sure that she is under their control; going by their rules and not the rules of the Vampire world. In our coven, she'd be welcome to do whatever she wanted outside of exposing our kind of course.

I've offered everything really. I've offered her a home here in in the castle with her daughter. In truth, I made it clear that we'd even be willing to welcome the rest of her family into the Volturi.

Yes, I'd be willing to tolerate the Cullen family. Even that pathetic, arrogant one, Edward.

To be truthful, I am actually curious about the Cullen "parents," Carlisle and Esme myself. And to be honest, I actually some respect for the southern war vampire, Jasper Hale. There are almost no reports of our kind ever surviving the Southern Vampire Wars. Jasper's great battle prowess has at least some of my respect. That is truly saying a lot, coming from me of all vampires. And the other blonde vampire, Rosalie, from what I can tell about her, must have had a traumatic experience before becoming a vampire. I narrow my eyes at that thought, remembering Alec and my mistreatment. We can relate.

I'd just have to tolerate the large one, Emmett, the little hyper active, annoying vampire that can't stop being cheerful, Alice and of course, that piece of filth that should never have been born, much less changed into a vampire, Edward. I could tolerate anything if Bella would be with me.

Hell, I think the best way to describe me is what the humans refer to as "whipped." I'm willing to do anything for Bella if she'll willingly join me. Even if it means tolerating seven poor excuses for vampires. Maybe just three poor excuses, since as I said the other four I can deal with.

I've tried tempting; I've told her what my family would do to Jacob Black, the wolf that lusts after a mere child.

Jacob Black…Heh, I assume that I've only seen him in his wolf form, but Bella has told me enough about him. Enough for me to despise him.

I've seen Bella's daughter many times since my family and I first laid eyes on her years ago on the "battleground" of the Cullen family's front lawn. When they gathered the vampires around the world to face us. She is now four years old.

However, even though she is four years old, she takes on the appearance of a fourteen year old. Physically, she's barely older than Alec and I were when we were changed into vampires. What's more, she still has the _mentality _of a four-year-old.

And to think, in a couple of those years, when she's physically seventeen or so, she'll be expected by the wolf shifter to be with him.

This is the trump card I use against my Bella.

I say to her as she tries to resist the temptation to join us, _"Just think about Renesmee. Just think about how "dear" Jacob is going to use her when he thinks she's the "right" age to be taken. My family could protect your daughter, Bella. You know we could, and we will. Just give the word."_

I had promised her. All she had to do was join us and that…..Child molesting wolf would be dealt with.

I might be a monster and the killer of over a thousand humans over the centuries, but even I was disgusted at the very thought of expecting a mere child that wasn't ready for….Well, for "Those" type of activities, especially one that was still mentally a child.

I offered to kill Jacob Black myself. My fellow Volturi of course, I'm sure would agree as well. I touched Aro's hand once after learning about the "imprinting" process of wolf-shifters. His reaction was one that was clearly disturbed.

To think, Aro, of all vampires, the most manipulative and ruthless of us, ruling the Volturi, was actually disturbed.

One more reason for me to want to kill the wolf. No one unnerved my master. No one. Except Bella and my brother of course.

What's more, I can tell, Bella dreads the day when Renesmee gets old enough to be seen as "ready" to have a sexual relationship. The problem is that she fears that Jacob will be the one to see Renesmee as ready for a relationship. She fears that Renesmee will not be given a choice, not one of her own free will.

She's afraid that her daughter will be pressured by the wolf into being with him.

I even addressed her about the issue once.

I ran into her while she was hunting. Her…..Current family was back at their home, getting the Christmas tree ready. I smiled when she told me that. Holidays in my Volturi family are known of and practiced. Aro…..In his odd, parental way tries to involve both Alec and myself in those sorts of things. The rest of the family, odd as it is to imagine, like these types of holidays and enjoy involving themselves. Oliver, Rufus, Heidi, Demetri and Chelsea especially.

In any case, I caught her hunting some predator animal of some kind and I addressed the issue of her daughter. She seemed as nervous as usual when I discussed Renesmee. What? Did she think that if she didn't talk about it, it wouldn't be any less true? That Jacob Black wouldn't eventually see Renesmee at the "right" physical age as fair game?

I told her. Told her that Jacob may try to pressure the girl into a relationship, maybe even force Renesmee.

Bella's reaction wasn't good.

Still, regardless of what she says, does she really think that Jacob and Renesmee's possible future "relationship" and Bella and my relationship are anything alike? I am not lying, Bella tried to compare me to that wolf that is after her daughter. I very nearly took down a tree in my rage when I heard that. How could she compare me to a…To a…..A child molester? How? Hadn't she known me long enough to know I wasn't like Jacob?

I know that I won the argument with what I said to her next. That alone gave me comfort, but still, the thought that she…Never mind.

But there was something else. I might be wrong, but I feel like there's something that Bella has been keeping from me for the past four years now. I don't know what it is of course. Whenever the subject of Jacob Black comes up, naturally, Bella's daughter is the first thing that Bella worries about.

But there's something that Bella is hiding. Not only is the issue of her daughter a concern to her, but I know that Bella seems to be afraid of me finding something else out. What is it? When I mention the wolf, she stiffens as if nervous, and not just from the idea of her daughter being with him.

So now I not only have one thing that is pressing against my mind that is begging to be solved; not just how to get Bella to join me, but what is she hiding from me in regards to Jacob Black?

Truthfully, considering how much I've already witnessed while trying to gain Bella's favor, a part of me has a feeling that I won't want to find out.

Still, Heidi told me the truth when she asked me about my relationship with Bella. It was better that I try and not like the answers than not try at all. Otherwise I would have none of Bella whatsoever.

So what, it was like that incredibly disgusting human saying, "Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?" Give me a break.

Still, there was one thing that I was going to make clear to every vampire, werewolf and shape shifter that existed on this Earth. A knowledge that flows in my venom and blood. Something that keeps me going throughout these years and tempts me to kill both the shape shifter Jacob Black and the foolish mind reader, Edward Cullen.

Something that makes me ach in my hours of no sleeping and eating. Something that I have never had before in all of my sixteen centuries.

The conviction of knowledge that I have, that Bella is _MINE._


	2. Christmas and Dark Love

**Mine: Chapter Two: Christmas:**

**Summary: **

**This is a flashback. Remember in the previous chapter through Jane's POV that she mentioned that she had met Bella once while the Cullen family was celebrating Christmas. This is a flashback of that time.**

**Another Note: Warning, this chapter gets very sexual. I repeat, this chapter gets very sexual. Those that can't stand that sort of thing, or can't tolerate a relationship between women, (in which case you would not be reading this story anyway) don't read it.**

**Bella's POV:**

I checked out of the window of our house as Esme, Carlisle and Jasper set up the huge, almost eight foot pine tree in our living room. I didn't see anyone outside. Then again, my nose was now far superior to what it was like when I was a human, so I should have been able to smell Jane long before seeing her out there. She wasn't there. Yet.

I looked over to where Rosalie and Emmett were showing Renesmee how to put ornaments up on the branches. I wasn't able to hold back any of the warmth I felt at the sight. My daughter was only four and a half, but she was about the size of a twelve year old. Luckily, none of the family, especially Emmett and Rose didn't treat her any less like the baby of the family.

I heard movement in the forest, and I at first felt hope, but then I smelled the musky and quite nasty scent of wolves. Five of them. Ah, Jacob, Seth, Embry, Quil and Leah were here. I immediately felt myself become tense. Naturally, everyone in the family tensed as well and turned to me. They all knew how I felt about Jacob. I was fine with the others, hell even Leah by this point. But what Jacob felt for my daughter was…..I resume to glare at the window where I could hear and smell Jacob and the other four approaching. I was not looking forward to having Jacob near my daughter again. Seth and Embry were always pleasures to have around and I actually had come to see them as my brothers, but Jacob was becoming the bane of my existence.

As I thought about this, smelling Jacob's scent getting closer to the door, I remembered Jane Volturi's offer for me to join her coven in Volterra and in return she'd help kill Jacob Black and the other wolves. I didn't want the other wolves, save for Sam Uley, Paul and maybe Leah to suffer but Jacob was the one wolf that I wanted to watch bleed and whimper in terror. I take a glance at my husband Edward, who's looking in concern at me.

I don't worry. After all, he might now be able to read my mind, but only if I let down my shield, and at this moment, I was not about to do something so stupid. As I confirm this cockily to myself, I think then about how much I despised Jacob even before he had imprinted on Renesmee. He was so much like Edward in his own way.

It was true, Jacob was like Edward, though if you looked at them next to each other you'd claim that they were complete opposites. But nonetheless, the comparison was impossible to avoid when he had been trying to convince me to choose him instead of Edward.

He had tried to make decisions for me, he tried to act like he knew better than me, he even forced me to kiss him once. Albeit, Edward did many things that I still have a hard time stomaching, but he'd never force me to kiss him as far as I know. And still, knowing that that type of man was who my daughter was eventually going to marry, and when Renesmee was at such a young age….It was all decided for her the moment she had been born, and she didn't even get a choice in it! Before I can develop any control, I start growling at where I smell Jacob's scent, only an inch from the door to our house. Jacob heard me because he backed away a little at hearing me.

The rest of the family move to try to calm me, but before they can get a word in, I'm suddenly overwhelmed by waves of calm being sent into me and I feel myself almost relaxing. I for a moment, am able to form a glare and send it towards my empath brother, Jasper. Jasper sent me an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, Bella," Jasper chuckled gently, "I just wanted to make sure you didn't kill our guests. Especially not in front of my niece." Jasper ended that with a very protective tone and empath abilities aside, I actually softened a little. Jasper was very protective of all of us, but especially his mate Alice, Esme his mother and his niece, Renesmee. His niece, to him was proof besides Alice that he could redeem himself and that he wasn't just a monster and killer like Maria had trained him to be.

I nodded, conceding. I was angry, indescribably angry that Jacob had imprinted on my newborn daughter, but I loved my daughter more and the thought of exposing her to such violence as trying to massacre someone who she considered "family," would be unforgiveable.

"I'm calm now, brother." I said quietly to Jasper, passing him so that I would go into the kitchen. The thought that Jacob has become such a beloved family member to Renesmee, only increases my anger and fear of the future relationship that they will more than likely have. Jacob, right now is like an older brother or uncle to my daughter, does he even comprehend what effect it might have on her to suddenly see him as a husband?

Jacob reassures me that she'll begin to see him the same way as he sees her. Trust me, that is by no means a reassurance to me. How can I feel better upon hearing that when I can't accept it ever and just want to murder Jacob whenever I see, hear or smell him?

I hear all five of the wolves enter the house and I can hear Jacob slowly, cautiously coming into the room.

"Is Bella alright?" Jacob asked nervously, "I heard her growling." I then heard him shuffle over to where I knew Renesmee was standing near the tree. Once again, I tensed at this. It was made even worse when instead of being repulsed by Jacob's presence, Renesmee ran to Jacob with open arms.

What the little girl cried when she went to him did not help matters, "Uncle Jacob!" She cried, jumping up in his arms as he laughed.

My stomach would have churned, had I still been human. Jacob wasn't rectifying her calling him "uncle" and he seemed more than happy with that title even though he was eventually planning to have sex with her, and Renesmee had no idea…

The rage was slowly taking me over again and I let out a terrible snarl as I let my right fist slide into the marble counter, smashing it. There was no sound from the living room. Everyone remained quiet. Only a few seconds later I heard two voices leave the room.

"Mommy!" Renesmee cried and I heard her leave Jacob's arms and run to the kitchen.

"Bella?" I heard Esme, my mother whisper, "What…..? Are you alright, love?"

There was movement and I heard them join Renesmee as they moved to the entrance of the kitchen. I unfortunately didn't want to face them while I was in this state. I turned towards the window and growled without turning back to them.

"I'm going out," Was my angry remark, "And I don't want any of you following me, okay? I just need time to think. And I mean it, Edward," I added, my growl becoming almost a small roar, "I know you always follow me even when I continually tell you not to. Stay away until I cool down. Besides," I decided to add one last biting remark, "you need to watch Renesmee and make sure Jacob doesn't molest her."

I heard several gasps behind me and Jacob's snarl of disbelief as I shot out the closed glass window, smashing it to bits as I got through and my feet hit the snow covered ground. I heard my family and the wolves calling and discussing whether or not they should go after me, but Alice's voice seemed to catch all of their attention in order to command them.

"Let's give her the space she needs," Was the response I heard from her in regard to my outburst, her voice as usual as lovely as bells chiming, "Once she has some time to herself and can calm down, she won't be as angry at Jacob. Renesmee, honey? Just leave your mommy alone for a little while. She'll be okay. So why don't you unwrap the presents grandma and grandpa got you?" My grin came in full force. Alice, my best friend, I could count on her for anything, including keep secrets for me. As I heard the rest of the family move away from the window where I had made my escape, I started running towards the forest. A part of me actually hoped that Jane would be there tonight.

There was something else that worried me. Alice's visions. I knew that Alice would back me up no matter what, but had she seen me meet with Jane? I remembered Jane telling me that she'd come back to see me on Christmas. We planned it so that means that it was something that could be seen in Alice's visions.

As I got to the middle of the forest under half a minute due to my speed, I ignored my concerns. I just wanted to see Jane right now. Damn the consequences of Alice possibly seeing us. I was too tired of pleasing my family, even my daughter, the wolves and yes, my husband to care any longer. I just wanted to speak to someone who could understand me. Albeit, Alice understood me, I suspect more than I understood myself, but she was occupied with keeping the family and Jasper herself happy.

She shouldn't have to worry about me.

I got to the middle of the forest area, and new by scent that I was only a mile from the large hills. I could tell from the smell of the fog and the plants that grew specifically in that area. I stopped my running and this time only slowly walked towards where I was headed. I highly suspected that I was far enough by now that even vampires and wolves couldn't hear what I might say with anyone coming by.

I forced myself to calm down. I was okay, I just needed a few hours. I trudged through the dirt, the scents of several animals like deer, squirrels, elk, wolves and bears filling my senses. I could more than easily have caught them, had I been thirsty. They wouldn't have gotten away in time either. A vampire is faster than anything on earth, save for a wolf shifter. However, I was in no mood to feed and I wasn't going to kills something just because I was angry.

That thought brings up even more troubled emotions and my mind goes back to several other things to be anxious about. Jane Volturi. The girl-no _woman i_n a girl's _body_ had haunted my thoughts for years now. True, years was nothing for a vampire and after a few centuries, I'd probably look back on this and laugh at how I could have possibly thought that a few years was hard. But there was still a question, if there would be a time a few centuries from now, who would I be spending it with?

Jane or Edward?

I thought I could be unaffected by encountering Jane over the past years, that I could ignore easily the little vampire's advances. I thought that her actions of courting me would leave me unaffected. God, I was so wrong.

I had already come to the realization that I loved her, but I wouldn't admit it, not yet.

But there was a lot more to think about than just that, wasn't there? Jane's offer has echoed throughout my skull almost every month of every year now. Her offers to murder Jacob for trying to take my daughter was just too tempting to not think about at least a little. How could I not think about it when it was just too easy to join with her coven and then just watch as La Push was ravaged and laugh as Jacob Black, Sam Uley, Leah and the wolves had their throats torn?

It was just too easy to fantasize. This was why I never thought about these things when I was around Edward or Jasper. Jasper could sense my emotions too easily and Edward might be able to see my thoughts if I let my guard down for even a second. I had to come here, to my special thinking spot. Only Jane and myself knew where I went when I was angry. Maybe Alice knew but she wasn't telling.

Before my chaotic thoughts could wander any farther, a new scent hit me. And it wasn't the scent of any human or animal. It was a vampire's scent. A scent I knew all too well.

"Jane." I whispered, eyes wide. So, she had come. I could smell her, not that far off. Deeper in the than me and closer to the high hills there. I heard her though. She was coming closer, running as fast as any vampire could. I could sense her and just imagine her as she was coming; dangerous, deadly, intense. I could picture her, pale, blood red eyes, black hooded cloak, her red eyes almost piercing the fog as she moved.

I shivered at the image. I knew how intimidating she was. And as a result, a part of me feared her. But that wasn't the only reason I was unnerved by her. She made me feel things that were so different from what I felt with Edward.

Along with that confirmation, I feel deep guilt for my feelings for Jane. Edward was the man that I married and swore I'd be with always, the man that I was changed into a vampire by, and have been through so much with. The day that I went to Volterra to save Edward, running into his stone arms to get him inside to hide from the sunlight, I was sure that I had reached the happiness I needed, until my eyes met those red ones once we were addressed by the Volturi, and Jane.

I smelled her getting close. She was moving surprisingly fast. She must have been eager to see me. I knew Jane. I knew her too well. I knew her moods, her secrets, her hopes and the things that she hated more than anything else. I knew she hated not being with me, and I knew that she hated that I wouldn't join her and her family in Italy. I confess, so long as Edward wasn't around, I had been thinking about her offers quite seriously.

What made me worry though was what would happen to my family. What would become of Esme and Carlisle? What would happen to my loveable and protective brothers Emmett and Jasper? What about my sisters. Rose and Alice? And even worse, what about Edward and my daughter? What would become of them? Was there only room in the Volturi for me? However, I also feared that maybe, just maybe the Votluri weren't through with us yet. I had seen how angry some of them were after our confrontation years ago on our lawn with the rest of the vampires from around the world. They had not been happy that we had been able to stave them off for a time. Edward even suggested that Aro was afraid of us…..Of me to be specific. And as I knew from experience and stories, the Volturi tended to destroy what they feared, as many humans did.

The story of what Caius did to the werewolves was proof enough of that. As if their fear of Renesmee when they thought she was an immortal child didn't make me even more nervous.

As I smelled Jane's sent moving nearer to my location, my thoughts go to Aro. I suspected he was very pleased with Jane offering me a place in the Volturi. I remembered him being very intrigued by my gift. He wanted me, Alice and Edward as part of his coven and I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of my family was coveted by that insane, power hungry vampire.

What Jane has told me about Didyme has made yet even more troubled. Didyme used to be Jane and Alec's mother figure before the war with the Romanian vampires. Yes, Jane told me about the Romanian war. Granted those two Romanian vampires that fought with us years ago; Stefan and Vladimir already told us their side of the story, which wasn't very convincing.

Somehow being tyrants over humans and saying that they were okay because at least they _admitted _being tyrants as opposed to the Volturi just didn't help their case. The Volturi weren't necessarily slave owners like the Romanians were, but they were tyrants. That whole, "Join us or die" attitude infuriated me unlike anything else.

But there was one thing that stuck out and left my mind even more fearful of Aro. Jane told me that Didyme was going to leave the coven with her mate Marcus, the black haired sullen one that was part of the three brothers in power. And then she was ripped apart and burned by a Romanian vampire.

Something about that sounded really suspicious. What's more, it makes me feel nervous for Jane. If my suspicion of what happened to Didyme is correct, what would happen if Aro got the idea that Jane was more loyal to me than to him?

I clenched my eyes shut at that. I couldn't think that that would happen, I couldn't. The very fragment of the thought that Jane might get…..Besides, she'd hit Aro with her power before he could do that.

There was something else. I was afraid Jane would find out about Jacob. She already knew the disgusting fact that Jacob had imprinted on Renesmee, but she didn't know that Jacob had once vied for my attention against Edward. I was almost deathly afraid of her finding out; she already wanted to kill him and offered me his severed head on a silver platter. Good god, I don't even want to think about how she'd react if I told her that he forced me to kiss him once.

She'd probably storm right into the house, regardless of keeping herself secret and attack Jacob right in front of the family and the rest of the wolves with the intention of ripping him apart.

And she could do it too. It was true, newborn vampires were much stronger than the older ones, but Jane was centuries upon centuries old, and even Jacob Black with his alpha blood wouldn't be any match for her.

Naturally, I was going to wisely shut my mouth about it. Finally, I heard rustling from the bushes and smelled the familiar scent of an animal that Emmett and Jasper both frequently saw as dinner; a grizzly. What was more, this grizzly was terrified. I could smell its fear. Now what exactly could scare a grizzly bear? Simple.

Me. And Jane as well. All vampires really.

The scent of a vampire was enough to scare an animal as far away as possible. They were scared of the "world's most dangerous predator," as Edward put it. The usually terrifying beast's massive brown head emerged from the lush green ferns as it looked around in fear and panic, and then it caught sight and scent of me.

The poor damn thing, it must have been terrified. On one end it smelled Jane and ran from her, thinking it would be safe, then it ran into me and smelled me. Problem is, the grizzly should be way more scared of me than of Jane. Jane doesn't kill and drain animals. I do though.

I smirked at the grizzly's eyes when it saw and smelled me. I could just see the wheels turning in its head as it realized it was in deep shit.

"Don't worry, Teddy," I sneered, flashing my teeth, "I've already fed, I'm not interested. Besides, I feed mostly on wolves," I ended that sentence with disgust as I thought of Jacob again, "You're not on the menu for me. Just wolves."

The bear seemed more or less to _not _understand as it became even more frightened by the noises I was making. It scrammed from out of the bushes and bolted past me, its fear almost making me want to chase it. Hey, I was a predator now; predators zeroed in on fear. However, I stopped myself and instead turned towards where I knew Jane was coming from. The grizzly was running away in terror from that direction so obviously Jane was coming from there. This time I could hear her footsteps, fast and rapid as they were. Every quarter of a second that went by, Jane's feet fell speedily, coming nearer. I could even hear the end of her dark hooded cloak brushing against the ferns on the ground as she approached.

I knew that she could smell where I was, but she couldn't hear me. I had no more bodily functions like my heartbeat so she couldn't hear anything. So I still felt the compulsive desire to allow her to know where exactly I was.

"Jane," I whispered, not needing to speak loudly at all when it came to vampire hearing, "I'm here. Get here faster, I'm getting impatient."

Though I knew as soon as I said it that I would regret it, I was really getting impatient. But, admittedly, telling her that I was becoming hasty was only a nonexistent heartbeat away from telling her that I wanted her here, and having sex with me. Figures.

I heard her move even faster in reaction to the confession of my location. I closed my eyes, sniffing her scent getting closer and hearing the birds that used to be in the trees flee, chirping endlessly in fear at the approaching beast. Finally, the brush behind me rustled again, but this time, I smelled an all too familiar and all too welcomed scent, accompanied by that arrogant, lovely voice.

"Waiting for me all this time?" Jane chuckled as I heard her step through the bushes, "I think I'm either flattered or hurt that you kept your desire for me to come to you a secret for so long."

I finally opened my eyes. I could almost feel my heart swell at her voice, if my heart were still living anyway. I turned to where she was emerging out of the shrubs, twigs snapping instantly as she passed through them. She faced me, her red eyes focusing in intensely on my own and I saw her smile with such pleasure that I almost shivered.

She had the face of an angel, the charm and sensuality of a siren from Greek myth and I couldn't get enough of her.

"Jane." I breathed again, this time unable to say anything else. How could I? I felt myself completely come to peace in comparison to how I felt back at the house with my family. How could I muster the strength to say anything else when all I felt now was serenity and safety?

"Pleased to see me it seems," Jane observed, her eyebrows lifting above her red eyes in amusement, "If it means anything to you, my love, I've been wanting to see you for a long time as well."

I almost felt a lump in my throat at that piece of information, that is after I shivered from the words, "my love." She missed me? I knew her feelings were deep and frighteningly unyielding, but to hear her admit that she actually wanted to see me and missed me hit me as the hardest surprise I had heard since I first learned that she had feelings for me.

Finally, I found the strength to start speaking, however, by the time I opened my mouth and found my voice, Jane had walked up to me faster than any human could see and took my right hand in her own, and lifted it up, the back of my hand facing her and she leaned down, placing a firm but tender kiss on the back of my hand, causing me to shiver again and then she released me, pulling herself back to look at me as she smirked.

I let my hand slowly fall to my side, feeling completely bewitched. And yet again, I find myself incapable of coming up with something to say. God, it felt like I had gone back to when I was a gullible, shy and so easily susceptible to the charms of seduction.

Only this time, unlike when I had been around Edward, I was totally at ease and calm, but still entrapped by her nonetheless.

"Have you missed me as much as I missed you, _amata?_" she asked the question, her smile that of a predator. I wasn't sure whether to shiver in pleasure or in fear at the pet name. She constantly called me that whenever she came to me. I once asked her what it meant. According to her, it was the feminine word for "beloved" in Italian.

Finally, I managed to break out of my reverie of dazzled mindlessness and got out an actual sentence. Wow, isn't that impressive? I breathed, out, almost gulping, "You have no idea, Jane. I hate being there when Jacob is there. It feels like I'm the only one that feels about him that way. Everyone else acts like he's okay….Even Renesmee, but I can't stand him." At my depressed tangent, I saw Jane's eyes narrow, clearly displeased. I knew I probably shouldn't have spoken about it at all. Jane had problems enough as it was with Jacob Black, she didn't need further encouragement to want his life extinguished. She hated him for imprinting on Renesmee, and she hated him even more for making me go through so much anger, frustration, distress and depression.

Never mind, the latter reason was good enough reason for her to want to zap him with her pain inflicting power, torture him, maim him and then kill him anyway, she didn't even need the fact that he was practically a pedophile now as encouragement. She hated him anyway just for pissing me off.

Still, I knew better than to even breath about the fact that Jacob used to vie for my attention against Edward. Nope, that would pretty much push her over the edge and seal Jacob's gruesome fate.

And as if just to confirm my suspicion about that, Jane let out a low, dangerous and primal growl in her throat, eyes almost dilated with subdued rage.

Realizing that maybe I should cut in, I said quietly, "Hey, Jane, calm down. I'm out of the house, away from Jacob, I don't think there's any reason to go postal or anything."

I wasn't sure if it was hearing my voice or hearing what I just said, but after that, Jane immediately stopped tensing, her eyes returned to normal…Err, or as normal as any red eyed vampire's eyes would be, and she stopped growling, and just looked up calmly at me, once again giving an arrogant smile. That was another thing, Jane could go from being a complete terrifying tornado of rage and destruction to a serene, controlled and arrogant planner in under a few seconds. I guess to a certain extent that'd would be considered creepy under normal circumstances, but for me I've come to see it as impressive and even intriguing and charming.

"Of course, Bella," Jane said, absolutely unchanging in how calm she was now, "I'm fine now."

I found myself smirking at that tone. "Sure you are." I answered, though I was wise not to add anything else in when it came to the matter of Jacob.

However, I decided that that was enough of Jane getting angered over Jacob and we should move on with our….Sessions. "Come here." I said quietly, opening my arms up affectionately. Once again, Jane's sporadic emotions showed as her cool as ice expression melted into one of joy and even hope. She practically lunged at me and rammed herself into my stone chest and let me wrap my arms around her. I held her close as she nuzzled into my neck and started purring like a little kitten.

Whatever cautions I had about this beautiful vampire evaporated instantly. That was what I loved about Jane. She could be ferocious as a lioness one second, tame as a little cub the next, and such a flirtatious and sweet little girl another minute.

I rested my chin against the top of the black cowl of Jane's hooded cloak as I held her. This was great. I felt completely content again. It had only been five months since I last saw her but it felt like it had been five decades. Kind of contradictory when you take into account that time is supposed to move faster for vampires, not slower.

Releasing Jane finally, I held her at arms' length and gazed at her again, my voice far gentler than when I had spoken to my family and Jacob as it came out, "I _am_ happy to see you, Jane. Very happy. How has it been back in Volterra? Have Felix and Dimitri been as much of pains in the ass as they are usually?" My voice took on a teasing tone at that, "Are they giving you a hard time?"

Jane snorted, eyes slanting to the trees in distaste as she was in thought, "They're the way they always are. Stupid and annoying as hell." She smiled then and turned back to me, "But they're just happy for me. I suppose I shouldn't be giving them such a hard time, but it feels good yelling at them."

"I bet." I whispered dryly. I knew what Jane told me when it came to her coven. From what she's told me, they weren't nearly as bad as Edward claimed they were. Then again, given how narrow minded he is, I shouldn't be surprised. Before I could think about anything else though, Jane's hands clasped by elbows and brought my arms up to her neck, making the palms of my hands rest against the sides of her throat. At least she did until she leaned forward some more so my arms slid past her shoulders and I was hugging her again until she moved her hands to my waist. Arousal jumped through me and I knew very well that I would have blushed horribly if this had been when I was human. I knew Jane could smell how turned on I was but I wasn't complaining. Even sex with Edward wasn't as good as I had once thought it would be. But when Jane held me…

Again, I feel a few moments of guilt, remembering that my little girl wants to see both of her parents at the house. If she were to ever find out that I was having…Well an affair with a member of the Volturi, I don't think I'd know what I'd be able to tell her, if anything at all.

Jane smiled in satisfaction as she could smell my arousal, and her hands traveled down more till one of them was resting on one of my outer legs, the other was very close to the area between my legs. The heat began to build more. With each inch Jane's fingers took towards my center, I felt one shiver after another run through me and I closed my eyes. I heard a satisfied purring noise. I tilted my head back from the sensations but managed to open my eyes a little enough to see that Jane was smirking and I heard the purring erupting from her throat.

Needless to say, she was excited, as was I.

Jane finally reached the place between my legs and started to rub circularly. Her other hand reached up and held me around the waist comfortingly. My gaze started getting hazy and unfocused. I was always happy when Jane touched me but I was extra grateful for her holding me like this, because I started feeling my legs getting wobbly. My eyes closed again and I felt Jane's cold breath on my neck as she nuzzled up against me.

I didn't think I could be more aroused than I already was, that is until Jane's fingers glided lightly over right between my legs. My eyes clenched shut and I found myself jumping, forcing my lower torso against Jane's hand even more.

Jane's amused giggle sounded as loud as an explosion against my ears. Good god I was happy that I was as far away from the house as possible. I could just imagine what would happen if my family, Edward _and _my daughter, Renesmee, all of which had _unnaturally_ good hearing, overheard the noises I was making and came out here to find me writhing under Jane freaking _Volturi's_ touches.

Jane seemed to somehow be a mind reader herself, for she added to my thoughts, giggling out this time, "Now, now. Do you want one of your family members to wander out here and witness us fornicating like this?"

Despite how sexually stirred up I was now, I found myself laughing at her words, even though I had been afraid of that same exact thing not two seconds ago. And was it weird that I found the way Jane described what we were doing as "fornicating" more dirty than just her saying "having sex?"

Yeah, that was weird.

I however, just relaxed as she touched me. I could feel Jane pushing herself up a little so as to be about the height of my neck and I started shivering again as I felt her teeth scrape the skin just above my collarbone.

I could feel the throes of pleasure starting to build up in me as Jane lowered herself this time, her tongue coming out and licking across my right nipple under my shirt. This time I couldn't hold back a small scream, and my eyes snapped open as I let the sound out. Jane didn't react this time, just nuzzled deeper between my breasts and this time removed her hands from my thigh and just placed both of them at my waist. In my haze, I was a little confused at the actions, until I felt her push me till I was up against one of the tall, moss covered trees. Jane then allowed me to slide down the tree till I was sitting on the ground and she was kneeling on the ground with me. She then, while on the ground, pushed herself till she was right between my legs.

I couldn't do much else in my state except for let myself slide to the ground and let both my body and head fall back so that they were both propped up against the tree, and I felt Jane wrap my legs around her waist as I could feel her undo my belt and pants.

Naturally, what happened next, even after it was over, made me whimper in pleasure at the thought of it. Jane had been merciless. Once my belt and pants were undone and removed, she had slid herself into me multiple times. Grinding and circling against my groin with her knee, licking constantly at my center, fingers stroking and thrusting. I hadn't been able to stop myself; I had roared, screamed and snarled like an animal having sex. The tree behind me cracked and I could hear several branches collapse as a result.

When the pleasure caused by my many orgasms subsided and I just slumped on the ground against the tree, (or what was left of the tree) my eyes completely hazed. One of my shoes had slipped off in my thrashing, thought that wasn't anything compared to the number of branches on the ground next to Jane and myself. Not a big shocker, really. Vampire sex is almost always rough and ends in inanimate objects, or trees, (or just surroundings in general) completely wrecked. After all, Emmett loved reminding me that he and Rosalie smashed a number of houses with their lovemaking.

Edward and my own sex wasn't as bad, but when I think about it, I have a feeling my lack of passion might have had something to do with that. Jane and I on the other hand might as well have been responsible for half the trees in this area being damaged.

I felt Jane move away from me for a moment and heard her pick up my shoe from the ground and could feel her putting it back on me. Even with my body in a completely weakened state, I tried, while exhausted, to get up on my elbows so I could look down at where Jane was placing my shoe on.

Jane succeeded and then looked up at me, smirking. I know I would have blushed if I could have, but instead settled for glaring angrily. Jane just loved reminding me that I had no control when it came to her. She loved pointing out that it was so easy for me to bend when coming to face her and the pleasure she's offered me. She knows I can't resist her in any way at all and relishes in that fact.

"Don't look at me like that," Jane giggled, making her look completely childish, despite what she had just done to me. Though her red eyes were still hooded with lust as she spoke, "I know you enjoyed it. It's not as if you were able to say that you weren't enjoying it," Jane's smirk then shifted in a flat out, dark grin, "Then again, you weren't able to do anything except scream and writhe anyway."

Anger clouded me instead of the afterglow of sex and I have no idea how I managed enough energy to do this, but I was able to kick my right leg out and ram it into Jane's stomach, throwing her back a little.

Only after Jane was thrown from me and hit the ground, did I realize what I had done. My eyes widened it dawned on me. I almost immediately picked myself up off the ground, stumbling and trembling the whole time, managing to keep myself up by grabbing the bark of the tree as I looked over at my now rather annoyed and _upset _lover.

I stared, seeing the bottom of Jane's cloak fall around her legs, exposing them to me and sending a shiver through me at the sight. I would have become even more excited by the fact that Jane was currently on the ground; a submissive position, if that is it weren't for the fact that I could see just how hurt and pained Jane was at my action and almost immediately whatever anger, arousal or excitement I had felt disappeared and was replaced with guilt and desperation to amend.

"Jane….," I started, not sure what I could say, "I'm sorry….It's just-" I wasn't able to finish when Jane cut me off.

"Just what?" Jane asked for me, now looking right at me, red eyes completely serious and angry, "Just that you're ashamed of me and don't want to admit to your dear Cullen family that you are in love and having sex with the "enemy." That you've been made love to by the disgusting, evil Jane Volturi? Isn't that just it?"

"You know that that's not true," I said quietly, flinching, eyes now downcast, "I could never feel that way. I do l…..," Even after all this, I couldn't say that word, I couldn't admit it to Jane or to anyone, "I do care about you. I do, Jane. But it still feels like I'm keeping a shameful secret because _they_ see you as an enemy. That's all there is to it. You were with the Volturi, leading them in fact towards our property the day you came to kill my daughter," I emphasized the words as I looked up again to meet my accusing eyes with Jane's now guilty ones, "you were there to kill us and her just like all of your beloved family were there for that purpose," I took a breath and let out gently, "It's just that they've all come to see you as the enemy. I've stopped, but they still fear you, and because of that, I feel like I'm almost betraying them. I don't see you as the enemy anymore, Jane. I could never."

Jane remained silent, and stood up slowly, her black cloak falling back down around her once exposed legs and I felt grateful that the…..Distraction that was begging to let the more beast side of my vampire personality come out was now longer in my line of sight.

I adjusted my head again so that I was looking right at Jane, hoping she hadn't seen how I was ogling her legs for the past seven minutes. I loved her. I knew that now. I belonged to her, heart, body _and _soul. But in my pathetic state, even after all this, I just couldn't admit it out loud that I was in love with her. I know, really sad, isn't it? I'm the brave warrior that protected my family and other vampires from the Volturi with my shield, ladies and gentlemen, and I can't even admit that I'm in love with this vampire.

Fantastic, goddamn fantastic.

Unfortunately, Jane, as usual, did not miss how I had been staring at her. And Jane, you know, being Jane, just had to remind me of it.

She smiled, holding her head back to observe me, "You know, I did see you looking at me while I was lying here," Her smile and eyes both turned more predatory as she spoke, "It made you want to just pounce on me, pin me to the ground and fuck me senseless, didn't it?"

All three embarrassment, arousal, and anger flooded through me, battling for control, luckily, my anger became the dominant emotion over the other two and I let out a small snarl in protest.

"Jane!" Came my voice, "Knock. It. Off. I know you just want to harass me until I admit it, but," My voice softened and I was no longer glaring, "This is Christmas right now. I'm sorry I've been getting so upset. Right now it seems that I've been doing that with everyone. Look, can we just walk around right now?" I then decided to bring up what I had been wanting to show Jane for the past four and a half Christmases since she first started visiting years ago.

"Jane," I started, smiling almost ecstatically, "Come with me for a little while," I saw Jane's smirk returning and I rolled my eyes, growling playfully, "Not like that, you perv, come with me to the town of Forks. Some of the people here actually have pretty nice Christmas decorations. I'd love to show some of them to you."

Jane's eyes widened upon hearing this and I could see the wheels of thoughts turning in her head as she considered it. I knew very well that Jane prided herself on not letting anyone get to know her too well and knew too well that she didn't let anyone know what she wanted. What was more, she pretended that things she deemed unimportant, like children giggling, animals, sunrises or sunsets, _and _Christmas lights.

Now, if it had been anyone else that had requested this, Jane would have snarled in rejection, or more likely, would have zapped them with her ability to hurt people and made the scream and writhe with her power and would learn to never suggest such a dull and _weak _thing to her again.

However, because it was _me _asking her to come and see the Christmas lights….

"Fine," Jane's voice came out as a sigh, and I could tell that she was trying to be uncaring, "So where's the first menial site?"

Unable to stop myself, I burst out laughing without care. Oh wow. Jane did not know the meaning of tact, to say the least.

"Jane," I laughed, desperately trying to calm down, "Thanks for putting it that way. Well, the first "menial" site, is nearby, so just follow me." I still couldn't stop laughing as Jane glared and I turned to take her into the town. God, Jane didn't realize it, but she could be really, really funny sometimes.

Now to go see the Christmas lights and _try _to have a normal, light hearted conversation with my lover while we were doing it.

**Note: Well, hoped you liked it. Again, this was a flashback, this isn't happening in present day, but it's just a flashback from before since Jane mentioned visiting Bella on Christmas.**

**So this takes place after What I Want Is You and before the first chapter of "Mine." Again, just a flashback.**

**The other chapter to this flashback will be in coming soon.**

**Again, sorry having this chapter be so sexual, I did warn you though. As mentioned, if you didn't like that type of thing or couldn't tolerate a relationship between women, (in which case you would not be reading this story anyway) you should not have read it.**


	3. Bella and Jane Heated Arguments

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, just this story

Author: BlackRose Petals 17

Summary: Bella and Jane are spending Christmas together when Bella brings up a tense subject

**Bella's POV:**

Jane and I were walking through the Hoh rainforest to get to the town of Forks. For such a "one horse town" as some might call it, one would never expect Forks to have as many lights as it did strewn across the rooftops of all the stores and the houses that Jane and I saw. I gestured towards the almost glowing lights hanging from several roofs and gutter pipes so Jane would look at them.

"See, Jane?" I said, smiling, "Don't those look cool?" I smirked as I said 'cool.' Jane had lived in the castle of Volterra with Aro and the rest of her coven for so long that she was unaware of most…Well, most modern words like cool. Luckily I had explained to her what the meaning meant and a few other words too like 'awesome,' 'blow this popsicle stand,' and the probably not so wise thing to teach her was the saying, 'bite me' and 'eat me.' Yeah, I probably shouldn't have told her those last two, given how Jane decided to exploit the meaning of them to actual literal and physical levels when we had sex together a few months ago.

Jane nodded a little, though her face still remained somber. She said quietly, too quietly for any human to hear, "Yes it is. I suppose that's the right word for it." She got a little closer to the house, inspecting the lights curiously. I watched her, unable to keep a smile from spreading over my face as I saw her look at the bright red Christmas lights next to the windows of the house. Jane flicked her finger against it, trying to investigate it more and more. To be honest, I was almost more happy to see her like this; to see her genuinely curious than when she and I met tonight. I had never seen her look so childlike, except for when she begged me not to ask her to use her painful powers on me ever again.

Considering what Jane and Alec's childhood and eternity was like, I imagined that they didn't have many opportunities to just relax and actually act like real children.

"Those are Christmas lights," I interjected, "As you can see, they're for decorations. I think I love that the most about Christmas. Even more than the snow."

Jane looked to me and cocked her head. "Why?" She asked, obviously not meaning to sound rude, but genuinely interested.

I laughed a little, looking down at the green ground of the forest that we stepped out of a little, not really restraining the endearing memories of my biological mother, Renee.

"Because," I started, feeling embarrassed, "When I was a kid, my mother would drive me around a neighborhood that had a lot of houses around during Christmas. The houses would have all these really beautiful lights all over them. I looked at her, smiling at her blank look, "I guess I can't really show you what they look like since you're not a mind reader, but I'll tell you this, there were hundreds of different lights, some were even in the forms of animals like rabbits or butterflies. " I added, smirking, "I'm sure this town has a poor excuse of a Christmas light display, but since I don't think you've had much experience seeing the lights, I think you'll appreciate what little this town has."

Jane rolled her eyes, then glancing back to the orange lights all over the sides of the house.

"Well," Jane said, hesitating a little, as if this time she was the one embarrassed, "These lights are indeed….Nice." My eyes widened. Nice? Well there was a word that I'd never thought I'd hear Jane say. Hell, I thought she and I could go through centuries and I'd never hear anything even _remotely _like what she said just now.

I smiled at how nervous she seemed at saying that. She really could be cute sometimes.

"Well let's see if we can find any other lights," I chuckled, grabbing her hand enthusiastically and starting to lead her towards the rest of the town, ignoring how startled she was at my abrupt action, "This town's lame but some of them can get into the Christmas spirit and have more lights."

I stifled my laughter when I heard her grumble a little and teeter along. Who would imagine it; the great Jane Volturi embarrassed and willingly being hauled around by a much younger vampire that she was in love with?

I suspect many, if they ever witnessed it and Jane allowed them to tell the tale, would never believe it. We got to the middle of the town, my hand still wrapped around Jane's wrist, her walking clumsily behind me. Funny, I'd never put Jane and the word clumsy in the same sentence, but what was I gonna do?

We got to the middle of the town, finally, and Jane came up next to me and we were on one of the streets of Forks. I'm sure that Jane was quite out of place here, bearing a long deep black hooded cloak and a silver medallion around her neck with the Volturi symbol on it, while I was wearing normal clothes. Jane probably stuck out like a sore thumb, as the saying went. Good thing that though it was Christmas, the weather was off and there was no snow, otherwise there would be a lot of questions as to why neither of us were dressed warmly.

I pointed to one of the few impressive decorations adorning the town, which was a big, inflated Santa Claus next to a log cabin that had been built about twenty years ago. There were at least dozens of multi-colored lights wrapped around the house and on its porch.

"Those are most of the impressive designs for this town." I said and adding, "I know this town is pretty damn lame when it comes to decorations, but it's nice isn't it?"

I watched as Jane nodded, her eyes not leaving the Santa balloon.

Our silence was interrupted when Jane said, "You know, there actually _was _a real Santa Claus many centuries ago. He was just known as St. Nick." "Oh really?" I asked, smiling, "I've heard that, but I never got it confirmed. Do you know what he was like?"

Jane smirked, "Well it wasn't like I ever met the fool. I'm old but my path never crossed with his. I know what he was like from stories," She smirked, "Not like the stories didn't explain who the hell he was anyway." She then lost her amused look and shook her head, "But humans are so materialistic that they've made everything about the legends into disgraceful commercials and everything about objects for presents."

I flinched. Okay, I'd admit that I always found Jane's hate for humans unsettling, but she was right. Humans were just so materialistic. It didn't matter the holiday, humans obsessed about what object they wanted to buy for the said holiday.

I decided to break the tension, chuckling, "Well, there's nothing that can be done about it. I wish there was snow now, though. I loved playing in the snow with my parents. I know that snow's really cold, but I always found snow a weird, magical thing. It was soft, and it was stuff that I could pick up and play with. It just seemed fun to be playing in. And don't get me started about sledding."

I was a vampire, and vampires didn't have that many memories of their human lives, but one of my fondest memories was when both my parents, Charlie and Renee were together and they taught me how to sled for the first time.

The snow had been thrown up from beneath the sled and had hit me right in the face, but I hadn't cared at all. I had loved it unimaginably. At the thought of the parents that I had left behind, I actually whimpered. Jane now had her complete attention on me.

"Bella?" The apprehensive response to the noise I made, bringing me back to present day, "Are you alright?"

I watched the usually murderous ruby eyes change to distressed, and had taken a shockingly yearning look of wanting to comfort me. My sadness and frustration melted. "It's okay, Jane," I responded reassuringly, not wanting to further worry her, "I was just thinking about my biological parents, before I grew up and then became a vampire."

Jane's expression became soft, gentle and understanding. A look that I think no one in a million years would imagine adorning her face. I smiled at her empathy. To be honest, it was hard to decide what appearance Jane took that I found the most beautiful. Even her scowls and angry looks were gorgeous to me.

"Bella," Jane pushed further, and I looked closer at her as she caught my attention fully, "What was your human life like?"

I was stunned. Both that she had asked me that, and at the awkward tone in which she had asked me it. As if she were a nervous teenage boy asking a girl out to prom for the first time. I found myself smiling even wider at this. This, to me was a sign that she really was changing for the better; changing from that cold hearted creature that killed and torture and felt nothing over it.

I shrugged and said carefully, hoping not to disappoint with my fairly boring human life as I started, "Not very interesting. I was born in Forks, but as soon as I was born, my mom took me to Phoenix, Arizona." My voice became a little bitter as I thought about it, "And she took me away from my father."

I saw Jane's eyes widen and then darken as she realized that this had upset me.

I smiled a little and said reassuringly, "Don't worry. As you saw, I moved back to Forks when I was seventeen. So I've gotten to spend more time with my father." I decided to continue, "I spent my whole life in Phoenix. I grew up in the suburbs near the desert. Not exactly what we'd call "vampire friendly weather," but it was home for me for almost seventeen years, when I wasn't visiting my father here. It was a pretty good life. Not much happened there, but I liked it. Most of my time there was spent taking care of Renee, my mother," My smile became loving as I thought about how scatterbrained my mother was, "She tended to not think about things so I usually had to take care of them for her. When I wasn't looking after her, I'd help her garden and went to a pretty boring school. When I moved here I looked after Charlie, my father, and of course, met the Cullens." I stopped there, knowing that that last part wouldn't make Jane too happy.

And of course I was right. At mentioning meeting the Cullens, I could see Jane's eyes narrowing and I decided that I had said enough and should end my life's story there.

"And you know bits and pieces of the rest, right?" I said quietly.

Jane nodded. I decided I wanted to distract her before she went on to how much better off I'd be with the Volturi than with the Cullens. "So," I started, "How have Alec, Felix, Aro and everyone else been since last time we saw each other?"

Jane lifted an eyebrow. I suspected that she knew what I was playing at, but only decided to answer.

"They've been very well," Her eyes became slits as she grumbled, "Felix is being his usual perverted self. He tends to be very lewd about his questions about you and me."

I couldn't prevent my laugh. Felix sounded a lot like Emmett. Emmettwas large, he joked a lot and made a lot of lewd comments and questions to say the least about Edward and my sex life. Sounded like Felix. Oh boy, if only Emmett knew just what exactly my "sex life" consisted of nowadays.

I then recalled Jane mentioning a relationship that was starting to form within the Volturi's castle walls. Demetri and Heidi were together now apparently. She smiled at that thought. Even upon first meeting Demetri, she had had the feeling that the tracker guard had feelings for Heidi. Of course, my suspicions had been sort of unimportant at the time since I had been too busy screaming in terror over the horrific deaths of all those people that the Volturi had fed on as their agonizing screams filled the stone hallways of the vampire coven's castle.

"How are Demetri and Heidi doing?" I asked, wanting to just not think about the slaughter that the Volturi had committed.

Jane grinned, showing off her fangs playfully. "They're overjoyed. It was funny when Demetri started courting Heidi. He always looked so embarrassed. Felix, as I'm sure you can imagine, never stopped teasing him till she finally became his mate."

I smirked. I could just picture the big oaf that reminded me so much of my brother, Emmett.

A thought then came to me, one that brought up my disturbed suspicions about Aro, and the thought that maybe Jane and my future had a chance. Of course, if my theory was right about Aro, then Jane and I would have a lot more to worry about than just the secrets that I kept from my family. "Jane," I said, making my voice firm, though I felt nervous, "Jane, I know you keep saying that I'd be better off with you Volturi than with the Cullens, but have you ever thought about leaving the Volturi and joining my family instead?" I knew what I just asked was extremely risky and I had no idea at all how Jane was going to react, so I braced myself.

Jane's red eyes widened. I had seen Jane shocked before. Had seen her shock before. But now, her eyes almost go as wide as baseballs.

Finally, Jane was able to compose herself again and she stepped back from me, making my heart clench painfully.

She narrowed her eyes at me. "And what?" She hissed, "Join your little family? Have to deal with Edward trying to come between us every day? Having to see that scum of a mutt pant after your daughter? I had no idea you were so sadistic, my Bella. Not only are you allowing yourself to be subjected to these humilities, but you want me to be subjected to them as well? I thought that you were kinder than that."

My whole being was filled with pain, knowing that I had made her this upset. Still, if she wanted to call Edward manipulative, she clearly had never truly tried to get to know Aro as I realized I knew him, even though he and I had only met twice. I understood completely what a controlling psychopath he was, and it was why I was so afraid of Jane remaining with him.

I opened my mouth to apologize, but after a moment Jane cast her eyes down to the ground and she whispered, her voice sounding envious, even though she had been angered before, "I still say what I did before. You should have met us first. You would have been happier with us and not the Cullens."

"Maybe," I chuckled, smiling grimly, "But I don't remember any situation that would have led me to you and the rest of the Volturi before meeting the Cullens." I hesitated a moment, as I wasn't sure if this was the best thing to say to here, even if she did know what my position on feeding from humans was, "And no offence, Jane, but you guys didn't exactly give me the best first impression."

I knew I was right to feel bad about saying that. Jane flinched and glared this time at the ground.

"You know that we regret that, don't you, Bella?" She mumbled, her voice embarrassed, as I'm sure that she had hardly ever apologized to anyone, "I know we were talking about your death, but we had to keep our secrets. And we'd never harm you now. The rest of the Volturi know that you're responsible for me changing. They're happy for us."

I chuckled grimly. She had it all wrong. I understood why they had contemplated killing me. I knew, and I didn't begrudge her family for it. I understood completely that they needed to protect their secret.

I hung my head. "You've got it wrong, Jane. It's not that. I want to be with you forever, Jane," I answered, "I do….but your family-"

"Drinks human blood, I know," Jane interrupted, rolling her eyes.

"Yes, that's right!" I snapped, now lifting my head and anger filling me at how nonchalant she was being over the issue, "This is why I want you to join my family, Jane! I want you to stop killing humans. You kill human beings! You all do! You don't care that you've killed a bunch of humans that will never see their family again. You kill children as they're screaming for their mother!"

My tirade was cut off as Jane met my eyes, her crimson orbs blazing with defiance.

"Is that so, Bella," She asked mockingly, "I hate to butt in on your arrogant stance on this, but you're telling me that you don't kill children and creatures with families?"

I was so startled by her anger that I no idea what she was talking about. That was until Jane so happily decided to enlighten me.

Jane went on, "You're telling me that deer don't have families? How many bears have you killed and as a result have left cubs alone to starve to death without their mother? How many baby elks have you ripped into, taking them from their weeping parents? Just because they're animals doesn't mean that they don't have families or feelings."

I stopped trying to "reason with her" upon hearing that. I hated it when she brought up arguments like that. Jane was always right. Just when I thought I could come up with some sort of way to make her see reason, she would give me a perfectly good answer that completely rebuked my earlier claims.

It was true; just because we fed on animals, didn't make us better. It wasn't like humans had families and animals didn't. And the truth was, I was starting to think about it more and more. Every time I had ripped a wolf apart and drained it dry, did that mean that a bunch of young pups, the wolf's babies would starve? Every time I attacked a bunch of deer, did that mean that their older deer parents would mourn in their own ways over the loss of their children?

"I'm sorry Jane," I amended at last, "It's just that I'm so used to our diet that the thought of feeding on humans is still repulsive to me."

Jane's eyes lost their fire and she shrugged, sighing, "It's alright, my love," I shivered in excitement at that endearment, "I know that the idea of feeding on humans is disturbing to you right now. But give it some time and some thought. You might come around to our way of life," Jane paused for a moment and added, "Or "unlife," anyway."

I smiled, "Thank you, Jane. But I still don't regret being with the Cullens. Besides, if I hadn't met the Cullens first, I wouldn't have had my Renesmee."

Jane smiled at that. "I suppose you're right." She mumbled, "Still, I think you'd like being with us, regardless of our diet. Renesmee would be safe from Jacob, you know that right? And you wouldn't have to be controlled by Edward."

I flinched at almost everything Jane said. The worst was that whenever Jane said these things, she was right. Have I mentioned that Jane was always right? Edward still was really controlling. The only reason why he couldn't control me like he used to was because I was a strong ass vampire. And Jacob still wanted my daughter. Renesmee would reach the physical age of a seventeen or eighteen year old in only a couple of years, but she'd still have the mentality of a little girl, the mentality of a six or seven year old.

It made me sick.

Jacob wanted to be with Renesmee in only a few years, even though I had actually explained to him that she'd still be a child mentally, even though she wouldn't look like it physically, and disturbingly, he still didn't seem to care.

I realized that Jane could tell what was going on in my mind without asking, because I watched her smirk widely.

"You know I'm speaking the truth," She said smugly, "Unlike your Edward," that part came out as a sneer, "I would never lie to you. I'll tell you the truth always, even if you don't like it. You know that you can trust me."

I flinched again. Jane seems to be very good at making me do that. And once again, she was right about this too. I've never recalled when she's lied to me, never.

I lowered my head. Everything she said was true and there was nothing I could do about that. But I was still afraid of one thing when it came to the Volturi. And this was something that I knew for a fact that Jane had no idea of. If I wanted my daughter to be safe, she had to be safe from everything. And that included Aro Volturi.

Here it went; I had to be honest with Jane, even if she hated me for it. I feared Aro if we joined the Volturi, but I feared him as well if Jane and I left. I thought that he did indeed love Jane in a certain "fatherly" manner, but I knew that that manner wouldn't come close to comparing to Aro's lust for power. That was why I was so terrified of him. The story that I had heard about Didyme only made me even more afraid.

The problem was that Edward might be a controlling, manipulative, lying bastard, but Aro was even more so.

"It's not just that!" I protested, glaring, "You don't get it, do you, Jane? I've come to suspect something," I knew I was about to cross a line, and I dreaded doing it, but it needed to be said, "About Aro."

Jane stiffened and immediately lost her smug look. She was now staring at me and I had a feeling that she wasn't going to interrupt me again anytime soon.

I sighed, knowing full well that what I was doing was risky, "Jane, you told me about Didyme, right? Marcus's mate. Who killed her during the Romanian war?"

Jane took on a cautionary look. "She was killed by some random Romanian vampire," She answered, "What are you saying, Bella?"

I shook my head, my suspicions mounting, "But did you actually see the vampire that did it?"

Jane lifted an eyebrow. "Well, no." She said, "She was already burning to ashes when we found her." I watched as she shuddered, her eyes now filled with pain. I now felt like the lowest. I knew how much Jane had loved Didyme. It pained her to ever even speak about her.

Which was why I knew this was going to hurt even more, but it had to be said.

"Jane," I started, being very careful, "Didn't you once tell me that Didyme talked about leaving the Volturi with Marcus and taking you and Alec with them?"

Jane's eyes pierced me. "Yes." Now she was really suspicious of what I was about to say.

I continued, holding a breath, "Jane, Aro would do anything to keep Marcus, you and Alec in his ranks. You and Alec are his top weapons and Marcus can see any connections Aro's enemies have. He would do anything to have you three remain with him. Didyme was going to destroy that.

"I don't think a Romanian killed Didyme. Didyme was going to leave with Marcus and the two of you….so Aro killed her." I finished, awaiting the consequences of my words, "Edward is a liar and master manipulator, but Aro is ten times that."

Even though I had readied myself, I almost jumped as Jane let out a terrifying roar. I would have stumbled back as well, if it weren't for the fact that I had forgotten that my shield was down, leaving me open for an attack from Jane, and the next thing I know, Jane sent her attack of mental currents hard, sending me onto my back, screaming and writhing in pain.

My screams were the only things that broke Jane out of her rage and she stopped using her gift on me.

My head was thrown back in pain as a result of her gift, so I was looking up at the dark sky, not looking at her, but I could easily picture her agony filled face as she said in horror, "Oh, god, Bella….I…I didn't mean to…" She let out another roar and I heard her feet move fast as she left me lying there, I could hear her dry sobs as she ran from me.

I got up and as I did so, I heard several people coming in our direction. What they said, no human would have been able to hear, but as a vampire, I heard them more than easily.

One of them yelled, "I thought I heard someone screaming. Come on, they might be hurt!"

I hissed. I couldn't risk anyone seeing me in this state. I got up and ran into the forest at normal human speed. What was more, I couldn't risk anyone seeing me using my vampire speed. Once I was sure that I was deep in the forest, I made the speed of my running exhilarate I was soon going past trees faster than Warner Brother's roadrunner would.

I sped faster and faster after Jane. I had to catch up with her, even if she used her gift on me a million times. We needed to talk, big time.


	4. Unnerving Facts

**Chapter 5:**

**Jane's POV:**

I heard her running, her footsteps hitting the ground again and again at top speed. Then I slowed down when I heard her come to a stop. I heard the bushes miles away behind me rustle as she turned. I didn't move. Why was Bella stopping? I had heard her come at me relentlessly, but now she was stopping? For a moment, I thought that this was a trick of some kind and that she was trying to lure me back to her. I contemplated the thought of just running off and not coming near her again for a while, but a part of me couldn't bear the thought of Bella being in pain. I had already caused enough pain for her by using my "gift" on her. Why had she allowed her shield to be down anyway? I felt my whole body tense up. I didn't want to face Bella, I couldn't. And I didn't want to cause Bella anymore pain, but as I heard my beloved mate whimper apologies, to me, desperately hoping to gain my favor back, her cold heart bleeding, if possible at the sounds, my resolve almost disappeared.

"Jane, I'm sorry," The younger vampire dry sobbed, "I'm sorry, my love." I winced. What could I do? I certainly couldn't turn my back on her. No matter what infuriating crimes she accused my master of, she didn't deserve my abandonment.

I felt conflict rise within me more and more. Aro was my master. He had looked after my brother and me for centuries. Each and every year that passed, that Aro had looked after us and practically nurtured us into the vampires we are now was all because of him. He had cared for us for years, taught us how to use our powers properly, he gave us everything; a home, a life, a family. How could my Bella even suggest that he had…..?

I clenched my teeth. There was nothing I could do about her accusation, except to face her and talk about it _calmly_. Ever since meeting Bella, it had been far easier for me to feel soothed, to not want to kill. I felt regret and sympathy for my victims becoming a frequent. I knew I shouldn't feel anything. After all, vampires need to feed; it's quite normal for all of us, but the regret remains nonetheless. And I have long since stopped despising and blaming Bella for my new weaknesses. That of course is, to be truthful, because I don't even see my feelings; my love, my regret, my compassion and my affections as weaknesses anymore.

I stared at the ground, slowly walking back towards where I had left Bella. I couldn't leave her like this. Still, the forces that roared and beckoned me to protect my master welled within me and almost halfway, I thought about running again, for I feared the outcome of facing Bella again, if I wasn't careful.

My master Aro, Bella, vampires that I loved so, so dearly. Aro had formed my way of…well, "life," so to speak and Bella had awakened my dead heart. I owed the both of them so much that I didn't even know where to begin. But what Bella said about Aro….she was wrong of course. My master loved his sister with all his soul…if we vampires have them anyway. And he loved Marcus as well, he knew what kind of consequences Marcus losing Didyme would have. My master was a brilliant, ingenious vampire. He would not do something so stupid. And he loved his "brothers" as much as he loved his sister. They were his family as the Volturi are to me now. My master, my father, was not Didyme's murderer.

I'd speak to her as gently as possible, but she couldn't speak about my father like that. Aro was not responsible for what happened to my vampire mother. We were in a war with the Romanians, and casualties happen all the time in war. Didyme just happened to be one of those unfortunate casualties. Aro hadf had nothing to do with it.

But nonetheless, Bella was my mate. Vampires needed to comfort their mates as soon as the said mate was in any kind of discomfort. And Bella _was _my mate, no matter what kind of protest that putrid Edward would say. I ran to my mate fast, now forgetting my earlier anger. Vampires, when it comes to our emotions are erratic and can't always be trusted to remain the same, especially when our mate was involved. I hated when anyone so much as mentioned in my coven that Bella was weak, when I knew very well that she wasn't. Anyone who can put up with someone like that Cullen boy can't be weak.

I ran faster to her, her beautiful, delicious scent becoming stronger. My Bella was closer now. I stepped nearer to her and she was almost four human heartbeats away. I knew describing that to Bella would be rather morbid, given that Bella told me once that she hated listening to the sound of human heartbeats because it made her want to and feed on humans more and more. I of course, encouraged her to feed on them, but she naturally refused. I suspect mentioning any human bodily functions would just disconcert my love, so I wouldn't say anything more on that issue till we had this fixed.

"Bella." I whispered gently, stepping further, till I was finally in front of her.

She had her head down and her whole body was shaking with quiet sobs. Her gorgeous mahogany hair hung down, becoming a shiny, brown curtain and covering any sign of her face.

"Bella," I repeated carefully, "I'm here. It's alright….I'm so sorry that I hurt you," I couldn't prevent myself any more than she could at the thought of how I had hurt her, "I don't think I can stomach what I did to you."

"No," I heard Bella's whimper, "Maybe you shouldn't have, but I shouldn't have said that either. Please don't leave me, Jane. I'm so sorry I said that. I know how much Didyme meant to you. I know that it was hard hearing that. No matter what you think, I know it was terrible of me to bring her up in the first place. I know that she was the closest you and Alec had to a mother. It was disgusting of me to even think of her." Her face became more resolved as she stared at me, though she was having a hard time holding back her cries of sadness, "But I still say what I did before, and I'm saying for your safety."

I narrowed my eyes. I was grateful that this time, I could tell that she had her mental shield up. So in case I went out of control, Bella was at least protecting herself. Good to know, very good to know.

I tried to remain calm and in control when I spoke my next words, "Bella, we can't talk about this. You are wrong. Aro is many things, and I won't deny that he is manipulative," I tried not to be disgusted at that admission, as my mind went back to when Aro had told me not to interfere and help save the Cullens when that army of newborns started by that woman, Victoria, had started flocking to Seattle, simply because he felt threatened by the Cullens' growing number of vampires, "But he would never kill his own sister."

"Unless it was to benefit his position in power," Bella surprised me with her sharp tone as she stared at me with a determined look, the pain still there, but a steel motivation accompanied it, "Edward once read your mind, Jane, and I know that Aro once ordered you, Felix, Corin and Afton to stand back and do nothing as Victoria's newborns came to attack us." My eyes widened. How the HELL did she know about that? Well, sure, she just told me. Edward had told her, but still…hearing it was far from expected.

Seeing my look, Bella smiled sadly. "Jane, you don't have to hide it from me," She said in a loving tone, "It's okay. I know you don't want to admit what he ordered you to do….or rather what he ordered you not to do, but I know. It's okay. After all, I know what his powers are. If you hadn't done what he said, then he would have seen it by touching you."

Hearing that, I glared at her. Any apologies I might have said, evaporated from my mind. "Then why did you lie to me just now, Bella?" I snarled, "Even if it _is_ true, which it's not, but even if it was true, why tell me when the moment Aro touches me, he'll hear this? Why put yourself in danger, Bella?"

I had expected a look of fear to cross my beloved's face in realization. I thought that she had simply made a mistake in telling me this and had intended to tell me later, when she was sure that Aro was not going to touch me, or keep her suspicions to herself, but no. There was no sign of fear or alarm on her face. She just looked calm.

"I can't just stand back and do nothing as you're being manipulated into being one of his pawns, Jane," She stated, her voice leveled as if she had sorted this all out long ago, "I know I'm putting myself in danger, but I can't stand that Aro has manipulated you for centuries, even if I do know what he's done for you and Alec."

I tried to "keep a lid" on my anger, but it really wasn't working. She was still blaming Aro, even though that just wasn't true.

"Aro is a good man." I snapped, "He just has to make some decisions to secure how powerful the Volturi are."

Bella was completely unaffected by this.

"I absolutely agree," She nodded, "I'm sure that he does have to make decisions that will keep the Volturi in power. Which is why I'm so certain of what he did. He needs Marcus as his fellow lord and to see the ties of his enemies and he needs both you and Alec, Jane. You and Alec are his most deadly warriors. His kingdom will fall if he loses the three of you. He couldn't risk Didyme taking the three of you away."

Both my jaws and my fists clenched. There she was going again. She was making it very hard for me to be civil here.

Seeing my look, Bella just sighed, "Just….Jane please go ahead and tell me that I'm not right about Aro being conniving and that he hasn't done ruthless things to make sure that your coven is at the top of the vampire world. Go on, tell me he hasn't." She stared at me, daring me to lie to myself.

I almost snarled again. But this time, the desire I felt to lash out was a desire to deny what she was saying. I couldn't believe it….and yet what she said sounded all too likely and too realistic. I had seen him plot, I had seen him scheme. I had seen him conduct the most terrifying and amazing calculating strategies to end the competition of growing covens and destroying those that had even the slightest of chances to overpower us. Even if it was just threatening our coven.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt disturbed. Aro was the most brilliant of vampires in this world. He was also the most ruthless. Over the many, many centuries that I had stood by his side and committed the most heinous of acts at his behest, I could recount thousands of his plans that revolved around merciless and cutthroat strategies that ended in the destruction of hundreds of covens, all for our sake. All for power.

That thought struck me cold. A chill went up my spine as my mind replayed these ponderings again and again and again. My blood felt cold, if possible. I had never even held open the possibility that Aro might have been the one to have….but that was because I had built him up to be such a great leader and Alec and my master who saved us from the fire in our human village. But now, thinking about how much of a ruthless leader he was….

No!

My eyes, I was sure at that moment, had become completely black with rage. No, no, no! I would not believe this. I would not stand here and listen to this. Aro was the only reason why Alec and I survived that terrible day when the two of us were tied to those wooden posts, with those bundles of sticks at our feet, and all the townspeople in the village assembled, lighting torches, ready to throw them at the sticks surrounding the two of us, and ready to watch our skin burn and crackle as we died a fiery death.

Aro rescued us. He changed us into vampires so that we could get our revenge.

He stood back and smiled at his two new "children," and marveled at the sight of us running into the village where we had spent our human years and watched as we slaughtered and drained every single resident of the town in an act of retribution for their evil against us. And Aro sat on a boulder and just laughed in triumph as we, his newest members of his family gorged ourselves on the filthy blood of superstitious, murdering dogs.

He _saved_ us. True, he said that he was interested in our powers once we changed into vampires, but it didn't make it any less true that he was the reason that Alec and I still remain today. He treated the both of us like he did Felix, Demetri, Heidi, Renata, Chelsea, Afton and the rest of us. Like we were his own children and that he cared for all of us. He would do no such thing like Bella was insinuating that he was. Aro was ruthless, a killer, but he loved all of us, including Didyme. I remembered how he had grieved when we had found Didyme burning. What Bella was saying, was just wrong.

It was a mistake.

I wanted to be more angry with her, but now that I recall, she had every reason to make that mistake about my master. He had orchestrated the attack on the Cullens that day when we first learned about Renesmee, and thought that she was an immortal child. Bella was making this mistake as a concerned mother. Of course. She had every right to be.

It was perfectly understandable.

I knew that it was completely inappropriate, but I started laughing in relief at my realization.

Bella was struck by this reaction.

"Jane?" She asked, startled, "Why are you laughing? This isn't funny. What the hell?"

My laugh ended, and I grinned, relief flooding me and I felt like I might keel over from laughter, if I wasn't now restraining it so as to speak to my mate. I know very well that Bella loved it when I smiled and laughed, but this certainly wasn't the time.

"My apologies, Bella," I laughed a little more quietly, "It's just that I was so worried that this was actually something serious. But I understand now. Bella, you have every reason to worry," I knew that my statement was somewhat of a contradiction, so at Bella's confused look, I concluded for her, "I know why you're worried. You're just paranoid because you're afraid for your daughter. It's a perfectly reasonable thing to be paranoid about."

I held my head back, with my eyes facing the sky as I prepared to laugh again when I my laugh was cut off by an enraged snarl. I believe that I must have looked like one of those cartoon characters that Bella once described to me when their eyes went wide and realized that they were in big trouble. I felt a hand grab the front of my robe roughly and my smaller form was lifted from the ground.

My eyes met Bella's now black ones and I was smashed against a large tree. I could hear the trunk cracking and even something inside breaking. I tried not to grimace as I realized that this tree, which was probably older than some of the Cullens, would not ever recover from this night. Maybe I wouldn't either, judging by the look in my mate's eyes.

Bella's fangs were gritted together, and there were animalistic growls that lurched from her throat. "Jane," She snarled warningly, "Don't fuck with me right now. Yeah, you're right. I am scared of Aro because I'm a mother. And with damn, fucking good reason!"

My body tensed even more in her grasp. Oh boy, she was cursing. Whenever she cursed, that was a sign that she was very close to snapping. Yet another thing her so called "husband," Edward didn't know about her.

"I want my Renesmee safe from him!" She spat in my face, a monstrous mask replacing her usual gentle expression, "He is manipulative and dangerous, and I want _all_ of my loved ones safe from him, including you, you ungrateful human murdering wretch!" She pulled me off the tree trunk and threw me to the ground, roaring out and making the forest tremble as she did.

"Your dear master, Jane," She spat, growling as she did, "Is using you. He might care about you and your brother, he might even love the two of you, but if he is ever faced with the choice, he will choose power over love. He always has and always will! He won't even mind murdering you to make sure that his power is secured."

I snapped my head around to stare at her, too shocked for words.

She glared, "He's power hungry. And he'll never change. You and your brother," Bella's face became grim, "And I suspect no one that is of value in your coven is safe from him if they ever try to leave. He will kill them if he thinks their loss will affect his power."

Bella took a threatening step towards me and for once, in what felt like many years of knowing Bella, I actually felt afraid of her, and she stared down at me in what looked like an odd expression that was a cross between desperation and anger.

"Who will be next, Jane?" She asked, her voice carrying a tone of heavy foreboding, "Who will be burnt to a crisp next for disobeying Aro?" An even darker look took over Bella's features.

"As I understand it, Jane," She continued coldly, "You told me in fact that there is a new human servant in your ranks. Andrea, isn't it? From what you've told me, she is still alive, right? No one has fed on her and killed her?"

I blinked, startled. What brought this up? Why was our new servant, Andrea suddenly so important? What did she have to do with this?

"Yes…," I said slowly, trying to grasp at what she was saying, "She still lives. Why is she of importance?"

Bella chose to ignore this question as she continued, "Santiago is fond of her, eh? Keeps a close, protective watch on her, is that right?" An unnerving grin spread across her face, "But I hear that Aro has no use for her. What _will_ he do when Santiago tries to protect a mere human that is useless to the head of the Volturi?"

She lost her grin as she finished, looking hopeless, "People close to you are going to keep dying if they don't follow Aro's every command and don't stay in his army, Jane, and Santiago might be next after he tries to avenge Andrea when Aro snaps Andrea's neck, and drains her." She whispered, her voice taking a harsh tone as she finished her sentence, "If we're not careful in our relationship, Jane, we might be next if Aro feels like you're drifting away from his control. What are you going to do about it?"

With that, Bella swiftly turned on her heel and walked briskly away from me. I just stared after her. What the hell was I going to do? Bella had her shield up, so even if I could bring myself to use my power on her, I wouldn't even be able to stun her in order to stop her and speak with her further. I was enraged. I needed her and yet she was acting like there was something to fear worse than us being separated. And yet her words repeated themselves over and over again.

Everything she said seemed to fit with what she was claiming Aro did. And the more I thought about her words, the more and more plausible it seemed that Aro would do such a thing. After all, how many vampires that had survived our attacks had Aro offered to join with our coven, and how many of those vampires survived after refusing Aro's offer? None. The moment the vampire of another coven survived our attack and refused becoming part of Aro's army, my master had the fools killed in less than a nonexistent heartbeat.

Across the world, my master searched for more members of his coven that he might be able to bring into his fold, under his control. When there were covens that broke our laws, he'd use that to his advantage to kill rival covens and took advantage as well to offer the remaining members to join us.

Everything that Aro had ever done since I first met him all those centuries ago seemed to point to what Bella was telling me. One other thing that disturbed me when I thought of it. It was true; Aro had always been fascinated with Alec and my power when we were children, before Aro turned us, but could the only reason he saved us that day was just to gain our powers for his army?

It couldn't be true though….Aro was just doing what a leader needed to do. It had nothing to do with being power hungry. Nothing. I shook off all these abhorrent, for lack of better words, conflicts that were going through my mind. None of it was true.

Sometimes in wars, generals had to make terrible decisions to make sure that his army won, that was all Aro was doing. But he would never have killed Didyme. Didyme was his sister for god's sake!

These contemplations ran through my head over and over and over. It was like the repetitive mantra of an insane masochist. Then again, considering my relationship with Bella, a woman who refused to join us and was still married to that pathetic vampire, Edward, that assessment didn't sound too far off.

I sighed as I heard Bella run through the forest. It would have taken a human nearly an hour to get back to the Cullen residence, but Bella was almost at the Cullen's front door again, faster than the human eye could follow. Once again, she would be welcomed back into the warm, lying home of her Cullen family, doomed to remain seething at Jacob Black the wolf as he leered at her poor daughter and keep this lie up.

Another, terrible question came to my mind. If what Bella was saying was by any means true, what could we do? The wolves were beasts that couldn't be trusted, and Jacob Black needed to die so as to protect Bella's daughter. Edward Cullen couldn't be trusted, and if Bella could possibly be right about Aro, which I kept telling myself she wasn't, but if by any chance she was, what could we do?

I wanted to kill them all. I wanted to kill the Cullens, but especially Edward and all the wolves and Jacob, but then, where would Bella and I go? Alec I knew loved me enough to betray the Volturi, even against Aro, and if Marcus found out, he would of course leave as well, but what about the other Volturi guards? I knew they loved me like any older brothers and sisters would love their younger sister, but enough to go against their master and the maker of several of them?

One thing was for sure, I could not let Aro touch my hand when I got back to Volterra. I couldn't allow him to know that I either suspected him or questioned him. Aro being responsible for Didyme's death or not, I would not allow Bella to be in any danger.

All these thoughts about Didyme's death brought on flashbacks of her separated body parts burning and I froze, horrified at the memories. Her poor, beautiful red eyes staying open in frozen horror as her decapitated head burned, her severed arm lying on the ground as it burned, the fingers of the removed hand still twitching, her lower torso….

I cried out and slammed my balled up hands to my head in agony. Never in my eternity had I yearned for my perfect vampire memory to fade.

At some point, in my violent haze, I heard the door to the Cullen home close and I knew that Bella was inside.

Finally, now that I was alone and every single memory I had of Bella and I together and of Didyme hit me, I collapsed to my knees on the ground, dry sobs hitting me. Whether a Romanian vampire or her own brother was responsible for her death, I was just ruined by Didyme's death. My broken words, were the only company I had, "Didyme...my mother….why did you have to die?"

**Author's note: I know that that was short but I hope you liked it. And I think the main reason why I made it short was because this was mainly ending the argument between Bella and Jane. **

**The next chapter will be about Jane trying to figure out if Bella might be right and the other Volturi.**


	5. Jane The Suspicion

**Mine: Suspicion: Chapter 6:**

**Jane's POV:**

I had returned to Volterra, too many streams of thoughts running through my head, as I did. It was funny what only a few minutes of arguing could convince someone of. Not that long ago (only five hours ago in fact), I had been unquestioningly loyal to the Volturi and to Aro. It was bizarre how only a few hours ago, Bella had said something that may truly change my view on my master and the home that I knew for 1600 hundred years.

As I walked through the giant stone doors of the Volturi castle, being greeted by the overjoyed faces of my brother and sister, Felix and Heidi, I faked a smirk, and only gave a brief hello and that everything between Bella and I was good as usual, even though it couldn't have been farther from the truth.

Approaching the main court of the Volturi, I saw Aro, Marcus and Caius sitting on their thrones, looking at me. Caius was glaring as usual, Marcus was off in his own world and Aro was grinning at me in his gentle and cheerful way.

"Hello, Jane," he said melodiously, "Welcome home, my dear one. Has your beloved been well?" Despite my now growing suspicions of Aro, the mention of Bella made my heart swell.

"Yes, master," I said, genuinely happy, "Seeing and holding Bella is always a pleasure." My common sense kicked in a moment later as Aro got up and I realized that I couldn't risk him touching me and hearing what Bella had told me. I added quickly, "However, I haven't eaten, so I'm going to go grab one of the servants." That wasn't completely a lie. I hadn't fed in a very long time. I had been too distracted while thinking about what Bella said about Didyme and Aro. I just couldn't think about feeding until now.

Aro asked no questions as I nodded respectfully to him and went down one of our castle's many hallways as I smelled out where some human servants were. I licked my lips. One of them smelled especially delicious.

The servant in question must have immediately realized my intent because he backed away, terrified and ran past the other servants. I grinned, my fangs sharp and deadly. When I jumped on the fool, and wrecked his neck open, his blood spilling out as I devoured it, I forgot everything that I had previously been terrified of as the bloodlust took me.

I barely heard the screams of the other servants as I sucked the blood from the boy's ripped open arteries. His body went completely limp and soon his body heat left him. The exhilaration I had previously felt left me as well as I had finished my meal. Whatever bliss I had experienced previously had vanished and I was left alone again, covered in blood, still bloodthirsty, and confused. More than anything else, I was confused. What was I going to do? The question kept playing over and over again in my head as I got up and left the corpse of the servant in the hallway for the other servants to clean up.

I couldn't let Aro touch me, unless I wanted him to know what Bella thought of him. Even if she was wrong, the thought of Aro thinking that Bella was a threat was terrifying alone to me. He would kill her. That fear only seemed to strengthen the argument that Bella had given me about my master. Just to what lengths would Aro go to make sure that his empire was secured?

Would he kill his own sister for power? _Did_ he kill his own sister for power? I growled in unsettlement as I sniffed around for my brother, needing his council. I knew that I couldn't tell him anything. The more people who knew what Bella believed, the more likely it was that Aro would touch them and find out. I couldn't risk that any more than I could risk Aro touching me, himself. But I needed Alec's company nonetheless.

I knew that I couldn't even allow one single move of mine to be careless. Whether Bella's claims rung true or not, I would allow no jeopardy to come to her.

I heard Santiago's voice from another hallway and stopped walking. Bella's words still thundered in my skull. Sinister whispers, reminding me of the foolish piece of gossip I had uncaringly given to Bella that started my internal conflict. I had told her about Andrea and Santiago's affair.

My stomach dropped. Santiago had become my brother just as much as Alec was. To imagine him in such emotional disarray over the human he loved was too horrid an idea to contemplate. And I would know. I could relate.

After all, weren't Bella and I the subject of the greatest chatter amongst these stone courts? The infamous vampire that fell in love with a human. Anyone else, who didn't understand my and Bella's history would think that the vampire in question was Edward, but to any denizen here, they could tell you the truth.

So I identified, all too well with any anxiety my brother might be suffering from over his human being threatened. Andrea, in his eyes, regardless of her species, was his mate. Murdering a vampire's mate, whether the mate was a human or a vampire, was the most cataclysmic tragedy that could befall them.

Being one of the Volturi that could understand Santiago's position the most, I felt for him. And I had witnessed Marcus's woe over the centuries since Didyme's death. No matter who it was that killed her, no one should have to go through that.

Whipping up the blood from my chin and cheeks and licking it, I wondered how I was going to approach this. The obvious problem here was that the majority of the guard revered my master as I did, but their loyalty would never waver, lest they had proof of Aro's deceits. Therefore, any defiance or suspicious behavior I might have would be watched and I would be under surveillance at all times.

I couldn't speak a word of my distresses. I had to carry this alone. I couldn't allow Aro to even touch me.

But there wasn't just a matter of secrecy that was before me, there was also a matter of protecting my brother from heartbreak. Santiago loved Andrea beyond words. I would never want him to go through what Marcus had. Or what I had been dreading for almost two years after I first met Bella and thought that she was going to die. It didn't matter where the danger came from; the newborns or my own family and myself when we mistook Renesmee for an Immortal Child, I knew what it felt like to have feelings like ice run through me at the thought of the other half of my soul being ripped away from me and destroyed in front of my eyes by my family under the judgment of the ever vindictive Caius.

This lead me back to worrying over Santiago's emotional well-being. Andrea, I knew, had no powers of her own, or potential for powers. She would be useless to the Volturi Guard, unlike Bella and other members of the Cullen family. Aro would have no incentive to allow Andrea to become a vampire. Even if Santiago didn't have any powers himself, he was a good fighter, and Andrea, I could already tell would not be a promising warrior. There was no value in her for us-for Aro.

The fact that Santiago loved Andrea had no importance to our coven. My love for Bella had just been a contributing factor to Aro's decision of desiring her as a member of our guard. But Bella's main worth had been her mind shield and her ability to allure vampires even before becoming one herself. Andrea had no such gifts or any at all to speak of.

In fact, if the stories were true, the main reason Aro had turned his sister, Didyme into a vampire in the first place was to see just what her powers were as well. These motives he had were all for the simple benefit of his coven being the most powerful in the world.

Having acknowledged all this, I felt a baleful sense of menace approaching my already frightened, yet dead heart. All these reasons for Aro's actions hinted at the possible reality of what Bella had been telling me. These pieces of evidence all pointed to the very plausible fact that just maybe my master had indeed butchered and incinerated his sister; my only mother figure for authority.

I had consumed all the blood from my hands and face now, but my mind was wrecked with alarm and agony. I really couldn't let Aro even so much as _brush_ against me, could I? I had to avoid letting my master close to me at all costs.

There were now two problems I had here. Both unfortunately made my beloved family the obstacles that I'd have to either escape or defeat in order to solve. If Didyme was in fact killed by her brother, that meant that I'd have to deal with the whole Volturi to either defeat them or convince them as well as I was becoming very convinced that Didyme's end was because of Aro in order to protect myself and Bella. And this meant as well that protecting Andrea and Santiago would be difficult as well.

The second problem that I saw, that now was becoming heavier and heavier as it landed on my shoulders, was to find a way for Bella and I to just be able to be together in peace. I let out a pained growl as I thought about Didyme. It seemed like the whole world was trying to get in the way of Bella and my relationship. Jacob Black's infatuation and immoral desire for Renesmee would only work as an advantage to me to get Bella to be mine. The dog and the rest of his pack were nothing but a trifle to be put to sleep permanently. But Edward would stop at nothing to keep me from Bella because of his obsession with her being "the perfect woman" that he had always been waiting for. He wouldn't give her up now. Edward was already a nuisance just by existing.

But now, it seemed like god was kicking me in the teeth. Before the veil of ignorance and blind loyalty I had to my master lifted, I believed that after I killed Jacob Black and the other wolves and got Bella and her daughter away from Edward, the Volturi would be a safe haven for us to stay. Forever happy and content. Now, I was being shown the truth that I was very wrong.

This so called haven that I had fantasized of that _was_ indeed my home, but far from safe was now being revealed to me as it what it really was. Now, I was starting to open my eyes and find that there were enemies all around me in my home of all places. This castle was just as deadly for me and my mate as it was in the Cullen home, unless we obeyed. And it might not be safe for Santiago's dear one anymore, if so much as one of our guard got hungry like I did just now and decide to feed on her. I'd have to watch my every move.

I was so concentrated on my conflicts that I didn't hear or smell my master and Caius approaching me. "Jane, my dear," Aro's jovial voice broke out around me, nearly making me jump in shock. I turned, tense now. I knew I couldn't let him touch me. Everything would blow up and be destroyed…metaphorically speaking if he did.

"Master." I humbly acknowledged, nodding my head, but put a safe distance between the two of us.

Aro's grin was wide and welcoming. So then…why did it unsettle me? It always comforted me before..…why was I being troubled about his appearance now? Again, I blamed Bella for all this paranoia. How easy would it be if I had just remained in the mist of naivety? If I was completely unaware of Aro's manipulative schemes? But Bella wouldn't allow that, would she?

She already tormented me every hour, due to my love. I couldn't stop thinking about her already, so now she had to disrupt the comfort of the home that I once knew and even shatter the trust I had with the only real father figure that I had fought alongside and served for over sixteen centuries? There were many reasons why I should want to torture her and kill her, but I could never bring myself into doing it of course.

But the very reason why I felt I had the right to hate her, was the same reason behind why I now saw Aro's smile as….well….disturbing. there was something very unsettling about him, now that I looked at him…_really_ looked at him. It was so strange that it only took some simple suggesting from Bella that made me look at Aro in a darker light. How fragile the minds of humans and vampires alike must be, when all it required for one such as myself to become suspicious of the vampire that had saved my life when my brother and I were humans and looked after us for sixteen hundred years was just a little verbal convincing and suggesting. My mind must be very weak.

"Little Jane," Aro's voice was delighted as he spoke, though his voice held a hint of concern, "I can smell blood all over you. You usually gorge yourself in such a manner when you are distressed. Is there something bothering you, my dear?"

The question might have ruffled my feathers, had it not been for the fact that I had thought up a lie and had rehearsed it mentally for hours before coming here, in case my behavior did seem "off," as the humans said, in front of my master.

"I am alright, master," I breathed, forcing myself to remain calm, "I was hoping that Bella would see that her home would be with me and she would forget about her fears of drinking human blood," okay, that wasn't really a lie, "I just want her to be with us and she doesn't trust us. So…I am sorry, my master, but I'd just like some time alone to think."

Aro nodded (kindly?) and smiled in permission for me to go. I walked slowly, so as not to make it seem that I was too desperate to get away from him. I went past some pillars and hid behind a stone wall in the hallway as I heard Aro and Caius begin to whisper to one another.

"This little liaison that Jane is having with Isabella," I heard Caius start, "No matter how touching I find it, we need that girl to join us. Isabella Cullen is very powerful, as is Alice. If they don't join us soon…" His voice trailed off and fear clutched me again for what must have been the seventeenth time today. I had thought that they'd be patient and would wait forever for Bella to join….at least for my sake if nothing else. Once more it seemed as if I had put too much faith in my "fathers." I wasn't sure I could even regard them as fathers by surrogate means anymore.

I heard Aro finish for Caius, "Yes, brother, I agree. But, I fear something else. Jane has become more and more drawn to Isabella. If she loves Isabella too much…comes to love Isabella more than us and in the end chooses Isabella over us….we might have to act." I froze and made no move when I heard that. "I don't want to have to kill any more of my precious ones," Aro said, his voice grim, and I had a terrible feeling that he was remembering his sister, "But if Jane betrays us…I can't risk her siding with another coven. And if anything happens to Jane, Isabella will know that it was us. This, thankfully will not risk war with the Cullens, due to her secrecy with her family. She hasn't told them about Jane, so they won't see it as grounds for an attack. And if they did know, they would cast Isabella from their coven.

"So to that end, we can kill Jane," Aro finished, "If she tries to leave us for Isabella. If not, then there will be nothing to be concerned of." I know that I'm undead, but I swear that I felt my heart and blood freeze like ice.

"You realize that we'll have to kill Alec as well if we do that," Caius whispered, as if disappointed, "We will lose both of our greatest guards. Perhaps, if it comes to destroying Jane, we could always stage it so it seems as if another coven has committed the act."

I couldn't move. I was paralyzed. I was terrified. I wondered if this was what people felt when they learned that their friends or family members were things like serial killers. I knew that we were far worse than that. We killed almost millions over the centuries. But finding this out from the coven that I considered my family….it was just too much to bear.

"Perhaps," Aro said, voice becoming hopeful, "If we tell Isabella beforehand what we will do to Jane if she doesn't join us, then perhaps, the new Cullen will consider this." I felt a little sick. I knew I was manipulative, but this just made me look honest and decent. They were going to threaten me to get Bella to join us? I never went that far. I only told Bella facts. Facts that when Jacob Black saw that Bella's daughter was "old enough," he would move in on her, but that was all….I had never…

The only reason why I didn't let a snarl out of my mouth was because I knew that any so much as one remote sound I'd make would be heard by the two of them instantly.

"You know," Caius said, sounding like he was becoming cautious, "It is perhaps best that we do not tell Marcus of this plan. Even if he does know that we'd just be lying to Isabella, he already loves Jane as a daughter and will not tolerate it any more than Alec will. And considering…past losses that he's suffered, I don't believe he'll just let us threaten Jane. Not to mention if it's you that's threatening her, he'll see it as a betrayal."

Now, Aro and Caius had my full attention. Not that they didn't have my full attention before when they were blasted _threatening_ my Bella, but this I realized, was a key piece of information that I needed to hear.

So when Aro spoke, I tuned in even more intensely, "Betrayal?" Aro's voice took a harsh mocking tone, "He would see it as a betrayal? He nearly betrayed us centuries ago. He would have left with Didyme, Jane and Alec if I hadn't interfered."

It took three seconds for me to process what he had said. And then another three. And then I felt a cold numb feeling overtake me. I felt frozen, unknowing of how to react. I felt empty.

Had I been guarding the Volturi my existence based on a lie? On false ideals and the orders of hypocritical warlords?

At hearing all this, I realized that I needed no further proof of Bella's words. Aro murdered his sister to stop Marcus from leaving him and taking Alec and I with him. Marcus and Didyme had loved Alec and I like their own children, and Aro had known this, and so to stop all three of us from leaving….oh god, how had I been so oblivious to this?

And worse, Caius had known as well and had kept it secret! Another distasteful question came to me. Did Aro and Caius's wives; Sulpicia and Athenadora know too? No, never mind, I really didn't want to know the answer to that.

I slowly, almost feebly walked away, walking fast so that they wouldn't smell me in time. I just had to get away from them. Even though I knew that they wouldn't threaten me yet, I just didn't think I could even bear to look at them right now.

I fled fast, once I had reached a momentum so swift that I probably could run through a steel wall effortlessly, I approached the gardens outside of the castle and came to a startling halt at the edge. When I halted, I felt like I should be panting. Vampires never needed air, not even when they got tired, but the astonishment hit me so hard that I just felt like there wasn't any other reaction that was fitting. I circled slowly around the garden till I reached some cabbage roses that Chelsea and Afton had planted there a few months ago. They did it because I told them that it was Didyme's favorite flower, which it was.

"How did this happen?" I whispered, as I stared at the flowers.

I kept inspecting one of the cabbage roses for what I suspected must have been only two minutes but it felt like seven years for me as my eyes traced each curve and line of the flower's petals, as if expecting the shape of the bloom to answer the question I had asked in such a lost and broken tone.

"Didyme," I mumbled in hopelessness, "Why is this happening? What am I going to do, mother?"

I was saved from my helpless dejection, thankfully when I smelled the wonderful scent of my brother, Alec coming near.

Soon, I didn't just smell my brother approaching me but also heard him. However, he was so swift in his movements that I barely had time to turn around and face him before he "attacked" me.

"Sister," My twin said affectionately as he hugged me from behind, startling me, "I'm pleased to see you back home." He parted from me and came around to look at me face to face, his appearance full of mischief, "How was Bella?" He asked teasingly.

In spite of all this, I still couldn't stop a smile, my previous lost expression now gone. My brother was here for me, no matter what. And even if the accusations against Aro were true and the rest of the Volturi were loyal to him, Alec would stay by my side for eternity. He was the one being in this world besides Bella that I could always look to in order to make me smile. So when he asked me that question, I could very nearly forget my worries for a few enjoyable minutes.

"She's doing very well, brother," I smirked as I spoke, "How nice of you to be concerned with my…private life."

Alec shrugged his shoulders and his smile widened in charm, "What are brothers for?" He then became a little more serious as he spoke, "Has your beloved considered joining us like we hoped?"

When that question left Alec's lips, I felt a cold ice storm hit me. This was exactly what I didn't want to discuss. I tried to cover up my discomfort, but Alec being as familiar as he was with me, saw through my guise instantly.

"Jane?" He asked, eyebrows narrowed, concern in his voice, "What is it? You look disturbed. Did something happen with Bella? Did that idiot of a vampire try to stop you and claim that Bella was his?" Anger edged into his voice as he spoke of Edward. No, no one in this coven was fond of Edward, except maybe Aro and that was only for Edward's ability to read minds.

The thought of Aro came into my mind again and I closed my eyes, sucking in a huge breath. This wasn't going to end well. None of this was. And I really didn't know if anyone involved, that being almost everyone, would get out of this with all their limbs intact.

"Alec," I started, bracing myself, "I'm fine. Being with Bella is always wonderful," I opened my eyes and said in a calculating tone, "It's just that damned wolf is still after her daughter and while I'm using the wolf to get into Bella's heart, she's still attached to those foolish ideals that the Cullens have brainwashed her with."

That wasn't really a lie. Bella, though starting to make me believe that my master wasn't as I thought he was, my dear vampire was still naïve when it came to the true nature of our kind. We didn't feed on animals, we fed on humans. It was abnormal for us to do otherwise. To pretend to act as anything but what we really are was an insult to our kind. Bella let the Cullens mislead her into thinking that their actions were honorable, even though it was a hindrance and nothing else.

Unfortunately, I was lying to my brother when it came to claiming that that was what was really bothering me and I didn't like doing that at all. I always wanted to be honest with both Alec and Bella.

"Brother," I started, deciding that I needed to start planning here to really make progress and make the rest of my family see what was going on, "I'd like to go somewhere with you," A plan started formulating in my brain, "You know that coven we found in England, Birmingham? I would like to go there and speak with them for a while." I could tell by Alec's puzzled look that I'd need to give him further convincing.

I made sure that my voice was believable as I spoke, "I just feel like I have let Aro down. You know how much he wants Bella and Renesmee to join us. Maybe we can convince some of the Birmingham members to join us. Hopefully it won't leave Aro feeling completely disappointed."

I knew that Alec didn't quite buy it, but he clearly understood the logic of what I said. It was more than true that Aro desired Bella's powers, along with Alice and Edward Cullen's powers. It was also true that Besides the Cullens and some various other covens, the Birmingham clan consisted of members that possessed powers that would make my ability to make vampires and humans feel pain, and Alec's ability to cut off the senses of others look like parlor tricks.

My….supposed reasoning for wanting to go there would make sense to anyone in the Volturi. However, my decision was made by a completely different motivation.

There was one vampire in that coven, named Kingsley, who was capable of reading the thoughts of others just like Aro was, simply by physical contact. However, Kingsley's gift went beyond just reading thoughts. He could basically do what Bella's daughter, Renesmee could do. He could literally _show_ people the thoughts that he had seen in other peoples' minds. He could insert the memories of other people into the heads of those that he wished. In other words, he could take memories from some people and show them to others.

If my plan worked, then Kingsley would be getting the memories I had of Bella's claim towards Aro, and of Aro speaking to Caius, confessing his sins himself and would be able to show those memories to Alec, Felix and the rest of the coven, including Marcus himself.

But of course, I couldn't tell Alec this, or any of what I had heard. He could not hear what I heard, unless I wanted him to be touched by Aro and have this whole plan be foiled.

"Please, brother," I started, "Come with me. And it would be nice to go somewhere besides Forks all the time," I added, smirking. He smiled back and chuckled.

"Alright." He agreed, "I'll go speak to Aro for permission and that you wish to please him." The mention that Alec would be getting close to Aro at the moment, sent a thrill of fear through me, but I knew it had to be done. If we left unannounced, Aro would know that something was peculiar.

I nodded as I established, "I want us to take off at least tomorrow. I'm sure that Heidi and Aleera can arrange that. So can you tell Aro that now?"

No matter how much fear and stress I felt over the idea of speaking to Aro, I restrained any of those emotions and just said passively, "I would, brother, but I'm just bored right now. You know I don't like it when I have to deal with Aro's constant joy and glee. It drives me crazy." I added something else, remembering that we had more vampires that could come with us and side with us if they knew the truth, "Also, I'd like Felix, Chelsea, Afton and Santiago to come with us, if that's okay with you, brother."

Alec looked surprised and I answered for him, lying in what I think, was in an impressive manner, "Felix and Santiago do not have powers. And Afton's power isn't used that often. And we're all so close that we don't need Chelsea's power to force us closer. This makes it both less of a liability if they leave the Volturi for a while and it will be less obvious about what we are if we ever run into trouble." I decided to clarify what I meant if Alec held any confusion, "If you and I, Alec, protect ourselves from humans, it will be obvious what we are, given our powers and we shouldn't be as physically as strong as we actually are by human standards. But Felix and Santiago are fighters. They won't cause suspicion if they step in and scare humans off."

That, I knew was a good excuse, and I could tell that Alec was willing to go with that. However, I felt uncomfortable knowing that he knew that there was something off with me. The more he or anyone knew, the more Aro would know, the moment he had physical contact with any of his guards. Still, it was the best plan I could come up with at the time.

Felix was the one that had the least loyalty to the Volturi. Even Aro knew that. The only reason he stayed was because of Heidi and because he was beginning to care about all of us. Afton was the same. He was loyal to the three masters of the Volturi, but only to an extent. Chelsea only stayed because Afton stayed. Santiago however, was the key here. His would be mate, Andrea could very well be in real danger. If he learned that Aro might plan to kill her simply because she'd be of no use, that would be essential for him to turn against Aro. Not to mention given how Aro practically gave a confession of murdering his sister, due to political and strategic reasons, it wouldn't be hard for Santiago to figure out that Andrea might be next.

Alec, though appearing skeptic, seemed to understand as he confirmed, "I'll go get Felix, Santiago, Chelsea and Afton and go to Aro for this request," His smile widened, "I hope that he'll give us leave though. Unlike you, dear sister, I haven't been out of the castle much at all since the last time we encountered the Cullens and their allies, let alone gone to some boring town, so I am looking forward to a trip anyway."

I let out a small laugh. I suppose he was right. Everyone had been cooped up for a while. Aside from missions and going out to walk in Volterra, there wasn't much that we had done since the confrontation with the Cullen coven. No matter what disasters that I knew were coming, I suspected that all of the Volturi wanted to reach out beyond our city and not under missions.

"Yes," I agreed, "That would be nice. Now could you ask Aro? I know I'm a vampire, but I'm getting impatient."

Alec turned but looked over his shoulder at me and said grinning, "I thought you always got impatient, sister." I scowled at him as he ran off towards the castle where I had come from.

I sighed as he departed, looking over the garden's contents a second time. This garden, according to Aro once, in his view, represented our family. He once said that we were his own garden and his family. Now it seemed that I was going to….uproot several of his family members from his soil.

Afton, Chelsea, Felix and Santiago would come with Alec and I, and hopefully, if Kingsley would help us, we could show the rest of the Volturi what I knew as well.

Unfortunately, there was one other small problem. The five of us would be leaving and as long as Aro didn't touch me, we'd be fine. But Aro would be suspicious when we all came back and didn't allow him any physical contact. If I stayed away from him, he might just find that peculiar, but when _everyone_ came back and _everyone_ knew that they couldn't let Aro touch them, and avoided him? Then Aro would become know very well that there was something wrong. All hell could break loose even before we had a strategy.

Yes, there were many holes in this plan. But I had to try. I had to get help and protect us and Bella.

But hopefully Chelsea, who was the most important in this plan here, would be able to come with us. She had the power to sever ties of emotion or keep it together. If she knew what kind of beast Aro really was, and she was on my side, she could sever the bonds between the guard and maybe bring them to us. Again, very flawed plan, but we had to start somewhere.

My thoughts traveled to Bella. "Then you'll be safe, my love," I whispered, unnerved, "I'll keep you safe no matter what. And you'll daughter will be safe too. We'll be happy." But even as I spoke, my memory recalled everything; the wolves, the Cullens and Aro all trying to get in our way…not even I believed that everything would be okay anymore. Considering I just found out the man that I had trusted for sixteen centuries was worse than a monster, I knew at that moment that nothing would be okay ever again.

**Author's Note: **

**Next chapter, I hope everyone doesn't get too upset is mainly going to be Jane and her brother and the other three going to see Kingsley.**

**Oh and sadly, the whole, "Aro murdering his sister" is not something I created. Stephenie Meyer even wrote it on her website herself that Aro killed Didyme to keep Marcus from leaving. I know, sick, right?**

**(Oh and I re-uploaded two of the chapters because I feel silly rereading them and seeing some of the errors I made in the spelling)**


	6. To Birmingham

**Chapter 6: To Birmingham: Alec's POV:**

I did not know what was bothering my sister. She said that it involved Bella and that she just wanted to be away from the castle for a while. Still, I knew there was something wrong. She was not speaking of what was truly wrong, but I just knew. I had grown up with her till we were twelve and nearly burned at the stake in our mortal lives and I've come to know her even better over the sixteen centuries. I know when my sister is disturbed. It made me angry. In general, I despise anything that upsets my sister, but to make her afraid to even tell me almost drove me through the stone walls of the castle to find out who angered her and slaughter them.

Still, I knew that until Jane told me what was going on, there was little I could actually do. I decided that I'd get closer to Jane telling me what was wrong when we were in the air and going to see the Birmingham Coven and to see Kingsley. She'd probably feel more comfortable once we were alone. But first thing was first. I needed to speak with Aro to get an answer from him about what we could do. I wanted Jane to be happy and if something as small as having Chelsea, Afton, Felix and Santiago with us was what did it, then I'd get them on the plane with us in less than a second if I could.

I shot through the halls and past the terrified servants and got to the middle of the alabaster court, now in front of where all three Aro, Marcus and Caius were seated.

"Alec," Aro said, grinning, and I smirked at how right Jane could be at times about his often inappropriately overly happy attitude, "I'm pleased to see that you've come to join us for feeding at this time. Your sister has already fed, and I'm under the impression that she is quite unwell." I tensed at that. How ever too cheery Aro might be, he was also very perceptive and right about many things. Jane was unwell, I could tell as well as our master could. I decided to take this time to plead with him to let the two of us and our brothers and sister go to Birmingham.

"Master," I said calmly, not wanting to make Aro think that this was urgent or dangerous, "You are correct. My dear sister has been feeling strange. I believe it may have something to do with Bella always refusing to join us. I think between being holed up here in the castle half the time and the other half of the time being rejected by Bella has taken its toll on her. That's why she asked me if I could ask you if we could go to Birmingham."

I saw Aro's confused look and went on, "She would like to bring Kingsley to you as a gift in place of Bella. That's part of why she's so stressed, I think. She even said that she feels like she's disappointed you. Besides, even if she didn't want to bring you Kingsley, I just think she needs to be around other vampires besides us and Bella so that she can vent for a while." I finished, hoping our master could understand.

Aro looked as if he was considering this all and then finally got up and gestured for me to come to him, hand outstretched. I nodded, understanding. I knew that to a certain extent, it would feel like an insult to anyone else. But I understood why our master touched our hands every time we departed from him or came back from a mission. He was paranoid. He wanted to make sure that none of us would betray him. I didn't feel insulted ever. After all, shouldn't a king want to know that his subjects were loyal to him at all times? I'd certainly hope so. I don't want a fool for a ruler. And no matter how many times Aro might act the part of the fool, he certainly is not one himself.

I was up close to Aro now, and my bare hand touched his. It's a very odd thing; Aro invading our minds. It's intrusive of course. But it's oddly soothing. I could feel him slither, like a snake into my brain. But it didn't feel creepy. Just a natural slithering. It was fine by me. I could feel Aro hissing out and sensing at the various different memories for inspection. Then he finally recoiled from my mind. When his hand left mine, he looked at me, smiling in understanding.

"I see, Alec," He said, voice regretful, "I'm sorry to see dear Jane so stressed. I imagine being denied the constant company of the one you love must be agonizing. It does seem as if Jane is tired and doesn't just need a little vacation, I believe that she deserves it. She's tried hard enough to get Bella to join us, and she's already gone through enough. I shall give you both permission to go. And I think taking Felix and Santiago with you would be useful, when it comes to having protection without needing to us your powers," His face then became even more serious and strict even, "As for Afton and Chelsea….I'm not so sure. I know that it's been a while for Jane since she's spent time alone with her, still…"

I flinched. I respected Aro's opinion. Revered him like I would a god, but I could tell how upset and frustrated Jane had been lately, especially today. Chelsea might be good for her. I voiced my opinion humbly, "Master, if I may. I respect your decisions but given how angry Jane has been over the years and how upset she is now, perhaps having another female to spend time with that isn't Bella for a little while would have a good effect on her."

Aro lifted an eyebrow at me but smiled more as he said gently, "You're a good brother, Alec. You're very loyal and protective of her." His eyes became almost nostalgic and pained and I thought that maybe he was thinking about his sister as he spoke, "Just as any brother should be. I wish I had been there for my sister when she needed me." My suspicion was confirmed and he turned his head, looking apologetically at Marcus who was looking away, clouded eyes indicating that he was lost right now. Whether it was because he had blocked out what Aro said or if he was remembering Didyme, I could hardly tell; that was for Aro to find out.

I couldn't really blame Marcus. I hated the Romanian vampire that killed our Didyme. If he or she was still on Earth, still able to walk and talk like all vampires, (I can't very well say, still living, can I?) then they'd better hope I never find out who they are. Didyme was Jane and my mother. Without her, once again, we were orphans, and Marcus barely seemed to be in the real world anymore and couldn't give us that much affection as a result.

My stomach tightened at the thought of all this and I really didn't want to stay focused on Didyme and her death. "Master," I said, hoping I didn't sound urgent, given I just wanted to get away from the subject of Didyme, "You did what you could. You were a good brother." Aro glanced at me, smiling in appreciation, though the heavy shadows of grief remained on his face. I continued, "Do to that, I would like to be able to look after Jane in any way I can. What is your decision, my master?"

Aro closed his eyes and breathed, "Well, given that you are doing for Jane what you can, while you have the chance, then very well. All six of you may go, Chelsea and Afton included. You all have my blessing to go and I'll send Felix, Santiago, Chelsea and Afton with you. But first, we all must feed."

I nodded. Yes, I certainly did. I had been so worried when Jane hadn't come back when she said she would that I just hadn't been able to eat. I was afraid that the Cullens might have found Jane and Bella out and had attacked Jane.

So yes, I was starving. So when I heard Heidi's footsteps coming through the hall and heard her voice speaking to the idiot tourists coming to their doom as they followed her, I swiveled my head to look at the great doors that would bring in my meal and my fangs came out and I let out a hungry snarl.

I readied myself, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aro move away from me and towards where I saw Felix, Chelsea and the others flocking into the room for the feeding.

I however, wasn't able to concentrate long as I smelled the flowing of blood approaching and watched as the doors open, my vampiric instincts awakening full force. I did notice though, as Heidi came in, she went to speak with Aro before I lunged at one of the now screaming humans.

**After the feeding: Alec's POV:**

I stared down at my victim. I'll admit; I felt some empathy for him. He couldn't be that much older than Jane and my brother, Oliver. He even looked a little like him. But it couldn't be helped. He was dead and there was a satisfied feeling in my stomach as all of the young man's blood took root there.

As I smelled my food's blood drying up, I heard Aro call to me, "Alec. Heidi has arranged for your and Jane's flight and she has six tickets for all six of you." I glanced at Felix and Chelsea to see how they felt. They didn't seem to be paying much attention, since Felix was still holding his prey to his teeth and draining her as the poor woman slowly went limp, blood dripping down her side from her throat. And Chelsea was licking blood from her own prey off of her fingers without glancing up.

I thought for a moment that they were too caught up in their bloodlust to face me, but Aro answered my questioning glance, "It's alright, Alec. I've already spoken to Felix and Chelsea, and Afton heard what I was saying and agreed to it. Santiago took his prey to another room, so I'll go and speak to him soon. In the meantime, gather Jane because Heidi is arranging the flight soon as Jane requested."

I nodded, smiling in gratitude as I licked the blood from my lips. "Going on a trip, little brother?" Felix asked, grinning as he ruffled my hair, his big hand whacking against my head, and furthering my desire to send him through a few walls so that he'd stop annoying me. Then again, he was both to me and to Jane what I always was to Jane. An annoying big brother. He was very protective of all of us; I don't think I know what we'd do without him, even if he didn't have powers of his own.

Felix was a big brother to many of us, and we'd hate to ever lose him. I suspected, though Jane would never admit it, that one of the reasons she wanted him with us was because she wanted to have both of her big brothers with her.

Aro took the center of the court and called out to all of us, "My dear ones! Jane has decided that she wishes to depart from us for a while and visit the Birmingham coven along with Alec, Felix, Santiago, Chelsea and Afton."

Understandably, I heard gasps and upset yells from the rest of my family. Our coven is close; we hate being away from each other for very long. And even though Jane was gruff and cold, all of our brothers and sisters loved her and were protective of her.

Heidi had arranged the flight but I could tell that she wasn't happy about it. Everyone looked at me, but Aro was the only one that I paid attention to. "Alec," He said soothingly, "I sent Robert to get Santiago and as you can see, Felix, Chelsea and Afton are already here. So you may get your sister and we can all say goodbye and get ready for the flight. Our miracle girl, Heidi has managed to arrange a flight in only two hours, so get ready, and make sure that your skin isn't seen in the daylight."

"Of course, master." I said nodding as I felt several bursts of wind as all three Santiago, Afton and Chelsea zoomed up and now stood next to Felix and me.

"Now all we're missing is Jane," Felix grumbled, voice dripping with irony.

"Shut it, Felix," Jane's voice came from behind us, "I'm right here."

I was about to turn when she was beside me in a second, smirking. "Well, brother," She asked, all stress and worry gone and just replaced with pure annoyance, "Are we ready to go?"

I lifted my eyebrow. It was normal for my sister to be moody and easily annoyed, but I still couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong here. My suspicions increased when I saw Jane move away from Aro quickly as she said, "Heidi, I'm getting bored, where's the flight and when is it taking off?"

Heidi, who had previously been saddened, burst out laughing, "It's close. We're just getting a car. It has especially dark windows so the sun can't expose any of you. The flight will leave in two hours so the car will be coming soon. I suspect in only a minute."

Jane nodded and went past Heidi into another room. "I'll be waiting for the four of you," She snapped over her shoulder at us before she disappeared.

Felix, Chelsea, Afton, Santiago and I all looked at each other as we followed. I felt Aro's eyes on us, but I said nothing. When we got into the hall part of where Jane was standing, I went away from Felix to join my twin. I had the feeling that whatever was happening with Jane, it was personal and private, so I kept my voice quiet even by vampire standards and made sure that Felix and the others were further away from us in the hall as I whispered to her.

"Jane," I hissed in her ear, "What's going on? You're moody all the time, but I'm getting the feeling that there's really something else going on here. Is it really just Bella, sister?"

Jane looked at me and just stared for a time. After a while, she looked over at Felix and called for him.

"Felix!" She snapped, "Come here, brother!"

I was surprised as she did that. I turned to see our hulking brother turn to look at us questioningly. Seeing Jane nod for him to come over to us, he walked nearer.

"What's up squirt?" He asked, smirking.

"Watch it," She growled, then glanced over at where Santiago was and upon seeing that he was far away, too far to be heard, she turned back to Felix and added, looking at our brother seriously, "Felix, I know Santiago is in a relationship with that human servant, Andrea. Everyone knows of course. Now, I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to have to deal with Santiago whining and crying and trying to kill Aro when we get back and find out that Andrea's been killed because one of us have fed on her. Most of the servants we don't give a shit about, but Andrea…" Her voice trailed off as if hinting what could happen and both Felix and I got the message at the same time.

I went to go request Aro to protect our brother Santiago's human love, before Jane grabbed my hand and kept me from leaving. I looked at her, startled and she shook her head. I heard Felix move and I looked over to see that he was running with inhuman speed down the hall to see Aro first instead of me.

Okay…..now I really knew that there was something wrong. Why was Jane so bent on me not speaking to Aro but it was alright for Felix to? She hadn't seemed to mind not that long ago. Then a thought occurred to me. One that unnerved me. What if there was something I knew, or thought about that Jane didn't want Aro to see? What if I knew or thought about something that Felix didn't know or think about and so therefore it was safe for Felix to be touched by Aro? I shivered. What was my twin not telling me? To be honest, it scared me that she wouldn't trust me with these things. What could she possibly be hiding? I stared at Jane, and she stared right back.

"Jane-?" I was about to ask before she squeezed my hand in her own.

"I'll explain later." She said quietly, looking at where Santiago had his back turned, "But right now, be quieter, Alec. I can't risk Aro touching you, okay? I'll explain when we meet up with Kingsley and the rest of his coven. But in the meantime, can I trust you to keep to yourself instead of going to Aro?"

I stopped and thought about that for a moment. And seeing a look that I hadn't seen in Jane's eyes since we were nearly burnt at the stake made my decision for me. It was an emotion in Jane's eyes that I wished to never see again since that horrific night when the fire almost consumed us. It was fear in Jane's eyes.

It was true; in any other situation I would have undying loyalty to our master, but if Jane told me that there was something I needed to know involving Aro, I'd listen to her in less than an undead heartbeat. Loyal as I am to Aro, if it ever came to choosing between him and Jane, I wouldn't even give half of a first thought about who to side with. It would be Jane, no matter what.

"Yes, Jane," I nodded, smiling at my sister, wanting her to know once again that she could always trust me, "Yes, you can. I won't go near Aro."

Instantly, the fear in my sister's eyes eroded and joy was now in its stead and she suddenly grinned at me, jumping onto me and hugging me hard. Despite my happiness at seeing Jane like this, I was very, very grateful that I was human. Why? Because firstly, because if I were human, my arms and back would have broken from her grip and secondly, if I were human than I'd have gotten a heart attack from her reaction.

Jane got close to my ear as she whispered, "Thank you brother. I swear I'll tell you what's going on, but you need to hang on first, okay?"

I smiled and nodded against her. I was so concerned for her and I'd wait as long as possible to get answers.

We heard a zooming noise from a vampire running and then we heard Felix say in a jovial tone, "What's this? A hug? Why wasn't I invited?"

Suddenly both of us had two huge arms wrapped around us and we were both picked up off the ground and were against Felix's chest in what I believe is called a "bear hug." I swear, Felix is an older, more serious version of that Cullen boy, Emmett.

Can't say he's any smarter though.

"Felix," Jane growled, "Put us down now, you ridiculous oaf! Do it now, or I'll-!"

"Yeah, yeah, in a second!" Felix laughed as he squeezed us closer, "Just wanted a hug from my brother and sister too." He then slowly put us back onto the floor and pulled away from us, grinning.

"So what was that about, little ones?" He chuckled.

Jane unlocked herself from our embrace and glared at Felix. "Nothing that is of your concern, brother. Did you speak to Aro? What did he say?"

Felix smirked. "Easy, sister," He said, "Everything's fine. I told Aro what you told me, and I think he agreed. He doesn't want Santiago pissed or anything, so he's going to put a ban on hurting Andrea. She will be protected until we get back and then her life is in Santiago's hands for him to protect."

Jane nodded, smiling. "Thank you, Felix." She then added quietly, I really don't want to think about Santiago being in pain either."

I looked at Felix and I'm more than sure that my face looked exactly like his at that moment. Hearing this much concern she had for our brother, even though we knew for a fact that she did love him like she did the rest of us; but for her to actually admit it was entirely different.

I noticed Jane getting angry. "What are you all staring at?" She spat, "Let's go. The car's probably here and we need to catch the flight!" She turned from us, growling and bolted down the hallway. Felix and I looked at each other before following, and we heard Chelsea, Afton and Santiago follow behind us.

**On The Plane: Jane's POV:**

I sat back in the seat, right next to Alec. I could feel him squeeze my hand protectively as I could hear every gadget in the plane's engine move as it flew. I smiled appreciatively at him. And I did appreciate this. Alec didn't even know what Aro had done and he was following me blindly, all because he was more devoted to us than to Aro. Yes, I was lucky to have such a brother. A brother who knew I was keeping secrets from Aro but still did as I asked and kept the secrets. Alec was my rock; the only thing that kept me from breaking when I had my doubts.

I then looked at the rows of seats in front of us. Aro….yes,…Aro. Aro was the only thing I was going to call him from now on. I was _never_ going to call him "master" ever again. He was not my master, and he would never control me, Alec, Bella or anyone ever again if I could help it. I was going to stop him now.

There was another reason besides Kingsley's power that made him such a good candidate to go to for this. It was because I knew that he would help us. It was because of Kingsley honor and nobility.

Kingsley was a man of the "old guard." He had been changed into a vampire around the time knights aided their kings and did justice for those in need. Yes, I know; knights doing justice for others are romantic stories humans come up with to delude themselves, but Kingsley was-is different.

Kingsley, when he became a knight and swore to protect the innocent, he _meant_ it. Kingsley was an honorable vampire. He killed his prey as fast as possible, and he despised the authority that was corrupt and would go against any army of a "villainous" lord, no matter how much the stakes were against him. Kingsley, was a brave and honorable vampire. That was why I knew he'd help us after touching my hand and seeing Aro's deceit. This job was perfect for him.

He would go against Aro as soon as he saw how treacherous the Volturi lord was.

I glanced at the row of seats to the left of us. I saw Afton and Chelsea seated next to each other and holding one another's hands. Santiago was in the row in front of them, and Felix was sitting next to him. I breathed in, trying to ignore the instinct to rip out the throats of two of the human passengers I just smelled. They smelled quite good.

I glanced at the others and Afton and Chelsea seemed too consumed in each other to care, Felix was making snide remarks as usual, but Santiago looked like he was having the same trouble as me.

I restrained a growl. Well, if all went well and we could get to Birmingham and to Kingsley without incident(without one of us murdering the whole mass of human plane passengers) then we could meet with the noble vampire, get him to show Alec, Santiago and the others what we knew.

And knowing Kingsley, given how heroic he is, he'll come with us and show everyone else my memories too, including Marcus. Maybe, just maybe, this one small army was enough to defeat the mighty Volturi with Kingsley's help.

And maybe, I'd be one step closer to protecting Bella and Renesmee forever.

**Author's Note:**

**And next chapter, we meet the noble Kingsley.**


	7. Kingsley The Knight Part One

**Kingsley, The Knight: Jane's POV:**

I had known that this was going to be complicated. And watching my brothers and sister in their respective seats only confirmed it to me. This was going to be a difficult trip. It wasn't just that I'd have to tolerate my family throughout this journey, but they'd hold out. I started maneuvering in my mind over just how I'd sort this out. Even if Felix, Alec, Santiago, Afton and Chelsea were given all the memories I had of what Aro said, thanks to Kingsley, how would we come up with a plan when we came back to Volterra?

Kingsley would come with us once he saw how traitorous Aro was. He was after all, a knight at heart. But Aro would know immediately that something was wrong when he saw that we were all keeping our distances from him so that he wouldn't read our minds. So the question was all about timing. Would we be able to get Kingsley to any other of our coven members and especially Marcus, if this thing worked? The worse part of it was that Aro knew what Kingsley's power was. Would he even let Kingsley near Marcus or the others if he already suspected us?

All these anxious thoughts stampeded through my head and I couldn't devise any answer from myself.

The memory still replayed in my mind of Aro talking about murdering his own sister as if it was nothing. How could he? I glanced at my twin, sitting in the plane's chair next to me. I tried to imagine myself doing the same to my brother. If it came down to it, would I ever be able to kill my Alec? No. The answer was simple really. No, I could not kill Alec any more than I could kill Bella. The only exception to that would probably be if he tried to kill Bella. But even then, I don't know if I could do it.

How could Aro really have done it? Was it really just so easy for him?

Hadn't Didyme meant anything to him at all?

What about the rest of us? Were we expendable to him as well? After all, if he was willing to kill his own sister….

My questions and fears must have been obvious, because I felt Alec's hand in my own, squeezing gently. I turned to him, startled. He smiled gently, trying to assure me.

"It will be okay, sister." He said tenderly, his red eyes fixed on mine, "Whatever is ailing you right now, it will be okay."

I squeezed his hand back. Alec always supported me, always. There probably wasn't anyone else apart from some of my family and Bella that I could count on. He had watched over me while all the children in our human village bullied me. He had protected me at every turn, no matter what; even from village elders who called me a freak.

As night approached, the darkness filling the small, oval shaped windows of the airplane, my brothers, sister and I watched as several of the humans went to sleep. I glowered at them and I saw Felix chuckle at my look. Here was where I envied humans. They could sleep when they were bored. We vampires don't sleep at all, so we don't have the luxury of falling asleep when we have nothing to do. Now that night was here, there wasn't anything we could do. Well, aside from stare at the humans' throats and imagine ripping their arteries open and drinking.

However, it was made even worse by the fact that now that most of the humans were asleep and that their hearing was pathetic next to ours, Felix chose this time to speak very quietly to me.

"So, Jane," Felix whispered, "Why are we going on this little trip of yours? What aren't you telling us? Does Bella have something to do with it?" For once, Felix's voice didn't sound teasing when he talked about Bella. He just sounded completely curious.

I felt tense. Alec wasn't the only brother dear and close to my heart. Felix, though younger than me and only four hundred years old, acted like my big brother. He protected me just as much as Alec did when he could. No matter how annoying he was, he was still a protector to me.

I recalled that one time when we had had newborns made in our castle and when one particularly irritating male had tried to harass me; tried to get me to be his mate, Felix had come along and had, in a rage, wrecked the newborn vampire to shreds. He had growled at him to stay away from his "little sister." The memory makes me smile even to this day.

"I promise you, Felix," I said calmly, "Everything will be made clear when we meet up with Kingsley. Just wait a little longer."

I knew what I said just now was more than likely suspicious, considering that I just made a statement about us meeting with someone who could put someone else's thoughts in your head and didn't want Aro to know. But Felix said nothing. However, I could feel Chelsea's eyes watching me suspiciously.

It was then I decided to speak, "Chelsea, you mended Marcus's severed bond with Didyme after she died, correct?" I knew it was a random subject for them and a painful, random subject at that. But this had to be asked. I had to see if there was any sign at all that Chelsea knew and if she was covering for Aro. If that was indeed the case, then we were going to have a few problems.

Chelsea's reaction was the one I had been expecting…..and hoping for. Her eyes went wide, her mouth went agape, horror, agony and shock all joined into one upon her face.

"Jane," She hissed, near disgust, "How could you talk about that?!" She spoke as if she was scolding her little sister, which to a certain extent, she was. She spoke again, "Jane, what brought this up? Why are you talking about Didyme?" I could feel the hot gazes from my brothers on me. I sighed out, trying not to sound urgent, "Well, you did use your gift to mend Marcus's pain, at least a little right?"

Chelsea's anger disappeared bit by bit. However, her voice turned dangerous as she growled, "Is this some kind of sadistic tact you had in mind, sister? If it is, it's working. Yes, I did sooth some of Marcus's emotions. Considering how strong his and Didyme's connection was, I couldn't heal him completely, but enough that he didn't throw himself into flames and incinerate himself in suicide for his love."

I nodded. Okay; that answered that. But I still needed to know if there was any indication at all that she might have been connected in any way to Didyme's murder. "Chelsea," I started again, mentally damning the consequences of my next question, "How much did you know about Didyme's murder?" I watched my sister's face very clearly to see if there were any signs of panic, fear or suspicion after I asked her this.

There was none of that, much to my joy. There was still the befuddled look and the pain. But now there was also rage. "Jane," Chelsea started, looking ready to cry, "Why are you picking at these old wounds? I know nothing except how much you know. I know that a Romanian vampire murdered her and burnt her to ashes. There, are you satisfied now?" I could tell from the anger and venom dripping from her words that she had nothing to do with my mother's destruction.

"Yes, Chelsea," I said, smiling, "I do feel satisfied. I just needed to hear it from you."

I turned back to stare at the back of the seat in front of me. There was no longer any fear that my sister was involved with Didyme's death. I knew that I was being stared at by all my siblings and to be frank, I didn't care. I had to make sure that Chelsea could be trusted, and now that I knew that she could be more than trusted, given her reaction to my questions about my mother, I no longer feared any possible treachery on her part.

"Jane," I heard Santiago hiss, "Just what is going on here? Why are you bringing us to Kingsley? Clearly there is something that you are not telling us. What is it? Why have you been acting so strange lately?"

I held in a breath. I was trying not to mumble, "I'm trying to make sure that your Andrea doesn't get fed on." I knew how tense Santiago was right now; he didn't need to get any more freaked out as the saying went. I had to figure out how I was going to go on about this. I had to approach Kingsley without the others thinking that there was something really wrong.

Mind you, they were getting suspicious as hell right now, but I couldn't even give a suggestion that Aro had killed Didyme; lest I wanted them to shed their loyalty to me even before they received my memories from Kingsley.

Despite my desire to satisfy the endless curiosity that my siblings sent towards me as they watched me, I decided to ignore them for the rest of the trip. To wet their appetites when it came to their desire to know my intentions, as it were.

It was cruel, but a necessity. The more they thought there was something I was hiding and the less I told them, the more interested they would be, and closer to me letting them know the truth.

The rest of the trip was silent between the six of us. I was perfectly fine with that. I couldn't say the same for my family, but it was close to my goals anyway. We heard the irritating voice of the captain overhead, saying that we were approaching our "destination," and that we should prepare to land and put on our seatbelts. As if that would matter to any of us. We were vampires; almost nothing killed us.

Still, I was thankful for that voice. It told us as well that we were close to where Kingsley was.

As the plane lowered, I prepared myself for my least favorite part of flying. Landing. Just landing. It's true, we vampires don't die unless there would be, say, an explosion from the plane crashing, but that doesn't mean that we don't feel the occasional fear. Landing was nothing for vampires but I hated the sensation of when the wheels of the plane scraped against the road when stopping. Just when I thought about it, I felt the wheels hit the pavement and I actually was forced to jolt up a little from my seat till I felt the plane come to a halt. Ugh, I hated that feeling.

I made a distasteful grumbling noise as the captain spoke again over the speakers. Alec padded my shoulder, smiling. He had been with me on plenty of flights to know what my phobia was.

I noticed Felix looking out the window of the aircraft and saw what he saw. From the look of how the light blue coloring of the sky, the sun would be up in a matter of hours. We had to retreat from the plain fast, unless we wanted our flesh to be exposed by the sunlight. "Move quickly." I ordered, stating the most obvious common sense in the world amongst vampires.

We vampires usually have nothing to bear as luggage; given we don't need that much, so there wasn't much of a struggle with Alec, myself and the others to remove ourselves from the seats and go down the aisle, past all the groaning humans as they practically battled to get their belongings out of the overhead compartments.

We reached the end of the terminal, with more or less a hundred stares being cast at us for our odd Volturi garments. We moved as fast as we could without falling into the unnatural vampire speed, exposing our kind, all the while glancing at the windows of the airport and seeing that the sun was starting to rise, but just barely.

Aro had a group of other vampire scouts throughout the world, pockets of allies on our side, willing to serve us at any moment; several of these allies resided in Birmingham and were alerted to our arrival. He told us, before we left Volterra that he would send some of these allies to drive us to Kingsley and his coven's location. Damn it, yet another thing to worry about. If these "allies" of "ours" stayed nearby while Kingsley was reading my memories and giving them to my brothers and sister, then they would know that I was planning to go against Aro, and we would be completely fucked.

Then there was the question; did Aro already sense that there was something wrong? Was that why he had arranged for our meeting with these allies; with these other soldiers of the guard? Perhaps sparks of suspicion and distrust had already floated around his mind and forced him to become guarded.

My stomach tightened in thought, but I didn't falter in my determined walk to the revolving door of the exit.

It seemed my dread had taken a physical form, as all six of us saw a sleek, black limousine parked in front of us, flush against the sidewalk. Facing us, with his back to our ride, was a tall vampire, his stature appearing menacing. The arms of his black tuxedo bulged with the strain of his muscles. His deathly pale skin made Aro's look a healthy pink in comparison, and it almost chilled _me_ to my bones. He had black hair, the color of night, tied back in a small ponytail. He had strong, dignified features, forming a face that I had only seen on Roman busts, and bore the darkest red eyes that even I had never seen before.

I took in each and every one of these attributes of this vampire and my proud, unmovable façade almost broke. My only gift, besides being a well-trained fighter over the centuries, was my ability to cause pain, but even without having that revered and wondrous fabled endowment of what was called "the sixth sense," I knew that this vampire was even more dangerous than both Alec and I put together.

I nearly shivered and Alec took his place in a vigilant stance next to me, becoming aware of my sudden frightful mood. The vampire's dark red eyes watched us carefully, making me nearly sick. For the thousandth time, I was blessing whatever power that existed that I couldn't vomit. The stare that was brought down on us sent the most terrible of palpable tremors through me.

So much as threatening this vampire was no joking matter. We would have to be very careful, for my hope of protecting my mate was diminishing.

The vampire ran his gaze over the rest of us and then spoke as he made the reason for his presence clear, "My name is Michael. My companions are Raphael and Gabriel. They're awaiting you in the car, and we will escort you to Kingsley's territory. Come; we might be immortal, but we don't have all the time in the world. Aro's calls came in and instructed us to scout the area for any vampire covens outside of Birmingham that want to cause trouble, so we need to leave you as soon as we bring you to Kingsley's castle."

I tried not to let my relief come out as a laugh, by tightening my body, and forcing my mouth into a line. The only thing that kept a lid on my slipping grip on the insanity of my uncontrollable joy from finding this out was the knowledge that if I made so much as a slight sound indicating the bliss I felt at his statement, we would be doomed.

Michael turned on the car and lifted the door handle swinging it open in a fluid motion. The leather seating inside looked like it had been cleaned and kept neat to perfection. The immaculate interior didn't comfort me. Rather it reminded me of how efficient a murderer, not unlike myself…..or unlike this Michael could be at cleaning up their tracks after the blood splashing blow was dealt.

"Inside." Michael commanded assertively, waiting for our movements.

I knew that there was nothing we could do, except go along with his instructions before we got to Kingsley's location. I hurried into the car, going to the other side of the seat for my brothers and sister to sit down next to me and across from me.

Alec and Felix were next to me, Chelsea, Afton and Santiago sat opposite of us, facing us. Santiago was closest to the door.

I heard all of the car doors slam shut and then a large shift in movement as Michael sat in the front seat next to the driver, with the third vampire, either Raphael or Gabriel behind him, and the car started up and drove off from the airport. I pressed the back of my skull against the head of the leather bound seat as I felt the flow of the car's movement and I closed my eyes, letting it lull me into a mock version of a sleeping posture. I knew that my brothers and sisters were again looking at me as if I had finally taken leave of my sanity, but I couldn't care less at the moment.

The black inside of my closed eyes left me to lose myself in my thoughts and my mind to wander back to Bella. It was because of her insightful and terrible statement; brutally informing me of who Didyme's true murderer was that we were here…that I was here in the first place. But it was at a horrendous price.

My beloved had willingly and foolishly (or maybe bravely?) had decided to risk herself by exposing the truth. She had made herself a target to be eliminated by Aro and Caius's ever growing power and carnage. In a way, in the process of telling me what she believed had happened to Didyme (what _did _happen to Didyme,) she not only had started a rebellion, but had walked into the role of being the next victim to cover Aro's gruesome crimes.

I smiled then; one of the few joyful reactions that would ever be seen on my face. Then again, that was one of the reasons why my soul, (if I had one) belonged to Bella. It didn't matter the danger, Bella did what her heart told her to do. If there was something that was truly wrong and repulsive, she would fight to prevent it.

And it seemed that she had seen, with her great inquisition, the bloodied sins staining Aro's hands. And she chose to forge a will against his tyrannical reign.

I "woke up" from my fake nap (not sure why I even did that, maybe I was losing my mind) eyelids open as I thought to myself some more. Anyone who ever had the moronic gall to say Bella was weak and pathetic, were simply comforting themselves by spitting out insults that reassured them that they were superior to her. Bella was stronger than any being on this Earth for her bravery.

She knew, perhaps better than anyone what we, the Volturi were capable and still willingly went against us. She did both when we first learned of Renesmee, and she did now. For that, the young vampire was far worthier of respect than any power hungry monarch like Aro or Caius.

I froze as I realized what conception had just crossed my mind. Had I truly just entertained the idea that Bella was worthier of being more powerful than Aro? A strange chill went through me, followed by a disconcerting numbness.

It took a moment, but I slowly processed what the ponderings that were piling up in my head were indicating to me, subconsciously. Bella was indeed brave. She was strong and knew when to stand for what was right. She was clearly open-minded; as the evidence clearly spoke. When Bella had still been human, she had been willing to give the Cullens; vampires, her utter and complete trust, even though she had known that a part of them wanted to feed on her. She had obviously been accepting of others, even the most monstrous of beings even as a weak, frail human. That alone made her unique. She was intelligent too. Having spent enough time with her, and learning of all the intellectual aspects of the world that she was interested in, I knew just how brilliant that beautiful vampire was. Every last aspect of her was the reason why I had fallen so deeply in love with her…..and why I now considered the possibility that she might even be a good ruler. If Aro was to be defeated….we'd need someone far more virtuous, far more fair and just than him. Bella was worthier of power than my former "master" was.

My eyes glanced around the limo for a while, mind scattered and ignoring the looks I was getting from my siblings. I was truly considering the scenario of bringing Bella into power in Aro's place. The idea was magnificent, unreal, surreal, beautiful and altogether chaotic. It was that understanding of what I was thinking about that made me really believe that I was going against the Volturi for real.

I of course knew that I was going to Kingsley in _order _to rebel against Aro, but it wasn't just the physical motions of myself that I observed. There was more to it than that now. Now I was plotting more and more. Now I was seeing someone to rule in my hypocritical masters places.

The truth was, if I was going to dethrone Aro and Caius, there would need to be monarchs in their place instead.

For if there was no authority in the vampire world, the vampires would run wild. There would be no control over them. Vampires, nomads and others would see fit to do as they pleased, including risk our exposure. There would have to be lords in Aro and Caius's thrones once they were defeated (if they were defeated).

But who else besides Bella? As I wondered this, I leaned back some more against the seat, this time sitting upright and glaring at the glass windshield beyond where my siblings sat in front of me, out into the street of Birmingham.

Some of the Cullens? I almost shuddered at the thought. No; the Cullens were foolish vampires. Bella and Renesmee might be the only two that were sensible amongst that delusional family. And others that could take power? I thought for a moment about taking charge myself but allowed the very aspect of that perish quickly. Me? That was a laugh. I was a soldier. I had always served Aro, and being a soldier wouldn't change now. I was a warrior that served a lord and that would continue. The only thing that would change would be the balance of power.

I inhaled deeply. I'd figure out who would be best suited to be in Aro and Caius's positions later. We were approaching Kingsley's territory now. I recognized the bridge up ahead that we would soon be driving under. I had seen it two hundred years ago when I had visited Kingsley and his coven last. It still looked the same after all this time.

And I hoped with every dead fiber of my being that Kingsley was still his foolishly noble self. I pleaded whatever god there might be that he would rise to the occasion to be the warrior he had been back in the days of the knights. If so, he would never stand for Aro's secrecy and desecration of his own coven-his own family.

One of Michael's fellow guards spoke up suddenly, "You will be dropped off here. We have other errands we must attend to, so we will simply bring you to Kingsley and you must fend for yourselves from there."

I kept my face straight. Oh, I had no problem with that at all. Not at all. "Pity." I said, voice dry, "And here I was hoping that Aro's extended guards would bore us some more with their insignificant droll. Where are you going to drop us off specifically?"

Alec was giving me a look, and I didn't care. Honestly, at this point in time, I couldn't care if the whole vampire world knew what I was planning on doing. I was through with being obedient to a coven master, ruling his kingdom based on lies.

I heard a dark, warning growl from the male that I had spoken to rudely, but paid no mind as we came to a stop near a lush, dark green field, its terrain home to a tall, yet humble looking grey castle on the larger mounds of the hills connected to the field.

Michael exited himself from his car as we came to a halt. The limo seemed to be lethargic in its stance. I looked through the different many windows at all the different angles. The greying clouds rolling in through he sky could be seen at one angle, and I felt my stomach drop. I didn't believe in omens, but considering the army that I was going to try raise would be against the most dangerous vampire coven in the world, I was going to take anything even remotely ominous as a bad sign.

I had served under the Volturi for nearly over sixteen centuries. I knew better than anyone the power that the guard wielded. I knew their loyalty, as I had previously been as much of a faithful dog as they, lying at Aro's feet, awaiting my master's orders, so I knew that a unified coven was perhaps the last thing one would want to go up against.

I heard Felix let out an aggravated grunt, "Well, now that we're here, hopefully Jane will stop acting so weird and tell us just what the hell is going on."

Rage immediately hit me. I snapped my head in my idiot brother's direction and scowled at him threateningly. Was Felix out of his mind? I had made it clear to him that I wanted to be completely subtle about our exhibition. The less other people knew, the more chance I had of pulling this mission off. Felix had basically risked our journey by opening his stupid mouth just now. Would Michael and his goons become suspicious by what Felix had said?

Why not just say, "Oh, we're going to betray Aro, please rip us apart and set the pieces on fire," while he was at it?!

Felix understandably jumped when he saw my dangerous look, and I saw him tense. He probably was expecting me to use my gift on him, however, I had no intention of that right now. That would only draw more attention to us. I turned my head cautiously to Michael who was opening our doors and I watched, readying for any type of fight. No sign of an attack ever came; if anything, it looked like this Michael was unfazed by anything that had been foolishly uttered. Perhaps his superior attitude made him blind to the most obvious of conspiracies, as opposed to his master, Aro; the master I used to serve as well.

That reminder of who this vampire's superior was made me all the more nauseous with fear and anxiety. This was the Volturi of all covens. I, better than anyone knew how much like a suicide mission this whole thing was. Minus Alec, myself, Felix, Santiago, Chelsea and Afton, my former coven, which I had every intention of becoming estranged from, was the epitome of an army from hell, even without us.

What was even worse; the whole lot of the Volturi could be missing from Aro and Caius's presences, but that wouldn't make a difference. Why? Because almost all of the vampire world lived in fear of us. I had helped see to that. I could present myself to all the covens in the world and the very real possibility was that no vampire that we would speak to would listen to us because they were dominated by the regime that I, myself had helped erect and cover the Earth.

This was a difficult situation and I had helped create it. I had to be very graceful about this, because now, we needed help.

That notion left me with a gigantic awkward feeling. How exactly did you explain to vampires around the world who you had spent all sixteen of your centuries terrorizing that you now needed their help?

I held in a sigh as I got out of the limo and jumped onto the hard gravelly pavement in front of Kingsley's estate. This was going to be difficult as fuck.

Five fast movements flashed next to me and I felt my family members join me on the ground. I didn't bother turning when I heard Michael say as he got back into the limo, "We've done as Aro has instructed. You six are going to be left to yourselves when it comes to returning home to Volterra. I have no interest in getting you back, this was the most we were willing to do for you. Have a good day."

Again, suppressing my smug expression was hard. Very hard, but I managed. Good, we wouldn't have Aro's lapdogs on our heels at every turn. Not that I was one to talk, but given that I now stood on the outside of the guard looking in, even though my brothers and sister didn't even realize, I had a feeling I could now at least make observations of Aro's servants' blind loyalty to him as mine was scrutinized by Bella.

That didn't change the threat though. Every last vampire in this world was afraid of the Volturi, and with good reasons. There perhaps were very few individual vampires, let alone whole covens that would actually have the courage to even think about going against the Volturi.

Kingsley was one story; as he was perhaps one of the most noble vampires around, aside from my Bella, but the rest of our world would more than likely be much happier to duck their heads down and avoid the danger of the oncoming war. And there would be a battle coming, indeed.

My former family had ruled for sixteen centuries, so while one half of our world might hide and never wish to get involved, the rest….like the remaining Romanians, would flock to raise arms against Aro and Caius.

While thousands were terrified of the Volturi, many would do anything to overthrow them. Oh yes, there would be a war alright. I sucked in a breath. I just hoped I could deal with the consequences of my actions after it was all said and done, if I still existed afterwards, anyway.

As the sound of Michael and the others driving off filled my ears, a realization dawned on me and was absorbed into my brain. That was right. True, I was deliberately betraying Aro and causing a rebellion, but had I really comprehended the consequences that would come with my actions? No, I hadn't. The grim truth of the matter was that the choices I would make today would change the future of every vampire in the world. I just had to prepare myself for the icy torrents of the oncoming storm.

I was saved from my fears again by Alec as he spoke, "Well, we should see Kingsley now. He is a patient man, but I suspect even he has his limits. I suppose we need to hurry."

"Yeah," Felix drawled, voice holding a cynical tone, "Because we all know how happy Duncan will be when he sees me again." I smirked at that, though Felix's voice held a challenge to it. The last time we had seen Kingsley's coven, Duncan, Kingsley's "child," had somewhat of a fight. Felix and Duncan don't like each other at all.

I'm not sure what led to the two of them trying to rip each other apart, but I heard that it had something to do with them arguing which one of them had destroyed the most vampires in their undead lifetimes or something petty like that. The one thing I remember was Duncan's arm getting ripped off by Felix in a fit of my brother's rage.

I smirked. "You got into that of your own free will, Felix," I said coolly, "You can settle your childish score with Duncan later. But right now, I need you to remain in control."

"Speaking of what's happening right now," Chelsea said, voice cautious, "Jane what is going on? We've been following you on this wild goose chase for hours and hours now. I think we're entitled to at least some explanation."

I didn't look at my sister, though I couldn't blame her for her baneful mood right now. "You will get your answers, Chelsea," I gave in a gentle tone, "But you just won't like them, I warn you."

I walked ahead, feeling several startled eyes at my back and kept moving. My eyes settled on the wooden, giant doors of Kingsley's castle. It was now or never as the saying went. The entire lawn before the castle was lush green, and one would never think such a beautiful home was the residence of bloodthirsty monsters. Then again, that was the case for many of us vampires. No one would think that within the bowels of the radiant city of Volterra, housed a coven of power hungry beasts like us Volturi.

I placed both palms of my hands flat against the doors, forcing them open within their frame in a firm but slow push. I ignored Afton hissing for me to wait till I was invited. We didn't have time to wait. I had bided enough time, and now was when we had to act. I just stared into the oncoming darkness from within the castle and moved forwards.

I heard someone approaching us from he hallways. The sounds of black leather boots hitting the stone tiles of the floor echoed around the hall and I waited to see who it was. I could tell from the heavy timbre of the footfalls that the vampire was probably as big and heavy as Felix was. Felix and the others more than likely heard the evidence of this and all quickly assembled next to me, waiting as I was. The even more disconcerting thing was that I could smell the vampire's scent. It wasn't a vampire I recognized.

A figure appeared in the darkness and it was only thanks to the fact that we vampires could see perfectly in the dark that I made out the shape and appearance of this vampire. He looked the exact opposite of the threatening Michael that we had met previously. There hadn't been a hair out of place for him. This vampire's hair was red-brown and wild; all over the place on his scalp. He was even more broad shouldered than Felix and had an angular face with a dark grin.

"I assume that you are the members of the Volturi guard?" The vampire asked, his voice surprisingly smooth as he observed us, his tone holding an odd Irish accent.

"Yeah," Felix growled out as he stood protectively in front of me, "And who are you? We've never met you before."

"Well of course not," The playful Irish accent continued, "I'm only seventy-five years old. Roland changed me into a vampire not that long ago."

My throat tightened. I didn't like the sound of that. Roland was what we might call, Kingsley's second in command, and though he was wise, he didn't have the best of judgment. This vampire gave me an "off" feeling as the humans say.

"You know who we are now," I snapped, making my distrust well known, "now identify yourself."

The vampire smiled. "My name is Leon. I don't know about you but I'm well trusted here. So you may want to get used to it. Now follow me." He turned, without regard to our anger, and started walking down the halls. Alec gave me a disturbed look; one that I shared, but I led the way again and was at Leon's back soon with my brothers and sisters following me.

The torches attached to the walls casted a dark orange, warm light, illuminating Leon's back and his hair, making him look almost angelic. I knew otherwise. Usually, the one that seemed the most trustworthy, were not to be trusted. After all, I knew better than anyone what that was like.

I looked upwards, seeing the signature royal purple cloths strung along the ceiling; all of which had ebony snakes sewn into the cloth, the black snakes in a circle so that their mouths were at their pointed tails. Kingsley's self-made crest; entailing who he was, appeared as regal and intimidating as ever. I looked back down as I noticed many of those flags and sigils were hanging above the arch of the castle door, leading to the main room of Kingsley's court.

Before us was a set of black, sleek looking metal doors with silver ring-knobs sticking out for someone to pull, to force the doorway open for the users. Leon reached out and grabbed hold of one of the rings on the door, pulling in a strong, swift motion. The door was open soon, revealing the dark blue marble pillars in Kingsley's court as well as the marble green floor, the tiles in the shape of a great griffin type creature. The stained glass windows surrounding the court shined with blue, red and green, giving the court a mixed lighting that appeared to glint against the stone skin of the occupants within the court.

The first vampire in the great room to meet my eyes with her own vicious red ones was Elena.

Standing nearly at the entrance, her cold as red ruby eyes stared at me intently. She looked as beautiful and elegant as ever; not one strand of her black hair out of place in its neatly tied bun. Her slender, but curved black eyebrows lifted in amusement as her red lipstick covered mouth curled, much to my chagrin. She was dressed all in her purple and black ball gown, and it looked no different from when I had last seen the disgusting thing two hundred years ago. It still looked just as pristine and royal as before. It reminded me just how much of a snob the woman was.

I suspect my distaste showed, as Elena laughed in my face, "My, Jane, it's been so long and this is the very first thing that you show to me? Even before opening your mouth? How like you Jane. How vulgar and uncivilized."

I turned my head so fast that it was a wonder it stayed on my shoulders as I glared at her, snarling. She flashed her teeth back at me playfully, but our…..little "interaction" was cut short as I heard the thick British accent of this coven's lord roar at us in a commanding tone, "Elena! Leave Jane. She is a guest in our home, it would not do well for you to start trouble." I faced Kingsley, looking at him almost gratefully. Kingsley stood in front of his throne. His stature was as strong looking and he was as broad shouldered as I remembered him to be. His face was round, and would be the ideal appearance of someone lax and calm, but the seriousness in his red eyes and that seemed to force his lower jaw to look stiff proved quite otherwise. His dark brown hair was slick, but the bangs were a little wild in front of his eyes and forehead.

He then narrowed his eyes at me. "Jane," He said firmly, "While it's always a pleasure, I assume you didn't come here just to antagonize my coven."

I held back a smile. Kingsley could at times be just as authoritarian as Caius and as….well, pardon the term, as "gay" as Aro was. He was a mixture of being both powerful and gentle. Only unlike my former "masters," he was truly noble.

"Hello, Kingsley," I regarded him, now feeling relieved, as if my journey had come to an end and I had found my salvation as I stared at his huge coven, almost big enough to rival the Volturi's as they all stared back at us, "It is good to see you again. My apologies for my rudeness."

I heard several gasps and I didn't need to wonder why I got these responses from all the vampires; my family and Kingsley's alike. No one had ever known me to ever apologize for anything in my entire existence. From Felix and Alec to Kingsley's "wingmen," Matthew, Hannah, Reena and Luthor to everyone else in the room, no one had ever believed me capable of being apologetic.

I stared into Kingsley's also startled, but wise eyes as I said in my most firm voice imaginable, knowing that I had now come too far to go back, and that this was the instrument to our fight against Aro.


	8. Kingsley The Knight Part Two-Rebellion

**Kingsley the Knight: **

**Jane's POV:**

I calmed myself. This was it. I had to gain Kingsley's favor if I wanted this to work. He needed to know-he needed to see what I knew. I needed him to send the information that I saw and transport it into my brothers and sisters' minds. Only then would Alec, Felix and the others understand.

"Kingsley," I stated, concentrating on the objective here, "I thank you for your hospitality. And I am in need of your service." The shock that my humble request brought remained; the awkward foreboding lack of sound that rang throughout the court was suffocating, luckily I brushed it off, like the leftover dust and water from a torrential storm. Their overwhelming shock should mean nothing to me right now; only my objective was to be focused on.

Kingsley looked startled, but asked in a firm tone, "Still right to the point. And after two hundred years, you can't even show signs of nostalgia. Very well. And what is this that you wish of me, Jane?"

I admit, I felt a little guilt at that. Kingsley, though a little too stiff for my tastes, was a good vampire and had been friendly enough to me and had helped us in the past. But I needed to have him read my mind fast, before my siblings became even more suspicious of me.

"Kingsley," I said, the pressure of anticipation banging against my mind. Alright, here it went. "There are memories in my mind that I need you to read and transfer into my siblings' heads."

I then risked a glance at Alec, Felix and the others and now the caution and paranoia coming off them must have been most obvious to everyone in the court. Alec's eyes widened and he stared at me as if I was a stranger to him. I felt sick. I had seen that look only once before; when he and I had first become vampires and I had ruthlessly ripped open the throats of my first victims. He had looked at me as if he hadn't recognized me, while trying to fight off his own undeniable, agonizing thirst for human blood.

It was a look I had prayed I'd never see again.

Chelsea was staring at me. I could tell that she was trying to use her powers to feel my emotions out-trying to figure out if I had finally lost my mind.

Afton, Felix and Santiago all looked beyond words. I glared back at Kingsley-whose expression mirrored several of my siblings. "Well?" I asked, temper starting to bubble, "Will you do this for me or not?" I forced my voice to soothe a little, "Kingsley, you must do this. For there is a great injustice that needs your attention." That, I knew would give me his undivided most engrossed curiosity. Kingsley was a knight first and foremost, and he would give immediate devotion to a cause that involved those that were in need of a noble purpose.

"Kingsley." I stated, leaving no room for hesitation and nodded for him to come towards me. The coven leader narrowed his eyes, suspicious, but nonetheless fascinated by my order. The next thing I knew, there was a flash of movement, and Kingsley was now in front of me. I heard growls and snarls next to me and I knew Felix, Alec and the rest were getting ready to protect me, should Kingsley take any odd actions.

"It's alright," I snapped, staring at the noble British vampire, "Everything's going to be alright." Yeah, like I believed that anymore.

I nodded again to the wise leader of this coven. "I'm ready." Kingsley cocked his head and took a slow step forwards, his right hand reaching out, aiming for my head. I could almost feel the tension from my siblings as they were readying themselves to protect me, but I stood my ground as I felt Kingsley's hand clasp over my face and forehead.

I was ready and opened my mind completely, restraining all instinct to erect mental walls and allowed Kingsley to dig into my brain and see everything that I had heard and saw.

It took a moment, but then I felt a jolt of electricity go through me and couldn't prevent my body from shaking and suddenly there were white flashes in front of my eyes. You know that term, "my life flashed before my eyes?" Well, it was like that, only it was all the events of the previous day. Everything that had happened yesterday flashed in front of me, all for Kingsley to see. My argument with Bella, Bella's accusation of Aro murdering his sister. Me contemplating it all and returning to Volterra; only for Bella's suspicions to be true as I heard Aro and Caius discuss Didyme and basically unintentionally confess to my former master's crime. Kingsley saw it all.

There was an enraged roar that filled my head and suddenly Kingsley's hand ripped away from my face and I heard him back away from me. The white light in front of my eyes was gone and I was forced to open my eyes and look at the Brit.

I don't believe that I can go into detail of Kingsley's expression when he processed the information he had received from my mind. I can't, because his shock and disgust was indescribable.

His lips curled back into a snarl, "This "master" of yours has been controlling you this whole time and he committed this atrocity? And lying to all of you for centuries?!" As a vampire that had existed for eras, I had seen mortifying sights that would make even those that had conducted the Spanish Inquisition turn in their graves with fright.

I can only assume that Kingsley was experiencing that same exact feeling. He looked sick.

My brothers and sister, who had all come to attention and were surrounding Kingsley, as they mistook his aggressive appearance as a signal that he would attack me, were looking from me, back to the currently stricken vampire. There was enough confusion on all of their faces as to what was happening here to fill the widest canyon on the earth.

I didn't like what was occurring in this stone laid court. The whole room was shaking with uncertain and tense emotions that were anonymous to me, and I didn't want to take a guess as to what all those emotions were. I was very happy that I did not have a gift that was akin to Jasper Hale's gift.

Felix, though clearly was beyond bewildered, decided to growl out protectively, "I don't know what you're talking about, Kingsley, but I'm warning you, if you even whisper a threat towards my sister, I'll rip you apart and incinerate you myself. And I don't care if I'm the youngest vampire in this room, I _will _do it."

The moment Felix said that, Kingsley's companions all snarled, also readying themselves to attack to defend their coven leader. Both of our parties were willing to go on the warpath, but they were aiming their deadly intentions at the wrong vampires.

I forced myself to remain calm. I had to be the one with the plan and with the strong resolve. I couldn't risk losing my serene mood, or else I would go into an emotional storm like everyone else in this room.

"Kingsley," I started, my demanding, but careful voice making everything clear and direct, "I need you now to transport the memories you saw and spill them into Alec, Felix, Afton, Chelsea and Santiago's minds." My order must have been startling to say the least, since I watched as every vampire in the room, save for myself and Kingsley, all were hit now with waves of shock. Their faces no longer _just _looked confused. Now they're disarrayed appearances were accompanied by astonishment. I ignored their stares. True, I had given that request before, but the shock of it still remained. "Well?" I persisted, glaring at Kingsley and then nodded to Alec who was staying close to me, looking just as lost as everyone else did.

Kingsley closed his mouth, hiding his teeth now and turned towards my twin. Slowly, he lifted his hand to Alec's forehead, brushing my brother's brown hair away and planting all five of his fingertips to Alec's cold flesh in concentration.

There was a brief pause and then Alec started shaking as I had, eyes shut as the memories hit him. I watched as he convulsed vertically, his knees and whole body trembling. Finally, when it looked like he was having one of those seizures that humans talked about, he snapped away from Kingsley's hand, eyes now open.

Alec's posture was rigid, his eyes wide and void of all belief. His lower jaw dropped, fangs drawn, and his eyes held no aggression, yet, given he appeared to be processing everything and his only expression was one of astonishment and devastation. Slowly, though, the look in his eyes shifted between hate, rage, despair and loss. He, to be honest, looked so much like the little boy that he used to be when the villagers that despised us, tormented and persecuted us.

His face contorted into one of a mask of grief and pure unfiltered hate.

"He killed our mother." He whispered, voice icy and vengeful.

I think it is understandable why one would be a little shell-shocked to hear my brother say such a thing without any explanation.

"Ah hell," Felix groaned, though he sounded lost too, "Now Alec's out of his mind too? What the hell is wrong with these two?"

"Shut it, Felix." I snapped, the command in my voice never leaving, "Kingsley, do to Felix what you did to the two of us." I added to my brother before he could tense up, "Felix, shut up and hold still so that Kingsley can carry out my demands."

I heard Chelsea gasp. Everyone, save for myself and Alec and Kingsley were getting very nervous and even hungry for a fight; for some violence. Well they'd get it alright, but not with each other. I stared to the side, watching Kingsley closely. The enraged look that had previously been on his face was gone and he looked simply concerned as he turned to Felix. He glanced to me.

"Will he try to stop me?" He asked, eyeing how cautious Felix was. "Not if I have any say," I answered, temper starting to build as I locked eyes with my large brother, "Felix, this is an order. Kingsley needs to show each of you something that is essential to or future." I know what I just said was probably one of my cornier statements, but it was also true. My siblings needed to be obedient these last few minutes if I wished to stop Aro.

Kingsley stepped towards Felix and this time, he held up two hands and reached upwards for not only Felix's face, but out to touch Afton's head.

Both of my brothers were taken aback by this and Afton started growling. I groaned. This was actually for the best. We needed my memories transferred to the others' heads fast, two of my family being given these remnants of my thoughts at the same time seemed to be the best option.

"Afton," I snapped, turning away from Afton and Felix and looking sadly at Alec who was still staring at the windows of the castle, looking confused, "Stop growling. Now is not the time for you insolence. Just let Kingsley do as I've told him and we can be on our way."

I heard a set of uncertain animal growls and grunts, but I ignored them as I walked over to Alec, placing a hand sympathetically on his own as I stared at his lost looking eyes.

"Alec?" I asked gently, hearing the smacking noise of Kingsley's hands against Felix and Afton's heads and hearing them gasp as if a few bolts of electricity were going through them. I paid attention fully to Alec.

"Brother?" I asked, my usual harsh tones softening, making me sound like his little sister again.

Alec broke away from whatever he had been thinking about and turned to stare at me, eyes full of sorrow and I almost broke at the look he gave me. He really looked like he would start crying if he were human and capable of it.

Though if vampires aren't capable of crying, then Alec could have fooled me as his voice came out in a choked sobbing sound when he spoke next, "Why did he do it? Why did he kill her? Does power mean so much to him that he'd kill one of the people he loves most?"

I closed my eyes. Those were all but easy questions to answer. He had my memories and therefore knew the reason behind Aro's actions just as much as I did, but he was left to wonder why the man that he had known as his master for many centuries would commit such an unspeakable act.

"Alec," I spoke gently, stroking his arm in comfort, "-" My words were broken off when I heard Felix and Afton pull away from Kingsley and I heard their united gasps and angry snarls.

"What?!" Afton roared, his voice reverberating around every inch of the stone court, sending chills through me.

Well, I think it was safe to assume that my memories were in Afton and Felix's memories, wasn't it?

"Please tell me you two want to take vengeance upon Aro." I said, my voice not indicating any question, just an order. "Oh," Felix snarled, "you have no idea how much. He brainwashed you and Alec all this time? I'll kill him!"

Ah, who knew such morbid words could bring such satisfaction?

"Good," I grumbled, "But heel, boy. We still need Chelsea and Santiago to see everything too. Kingsley, move on to my sister and other brother." I wasn't going to pay much more attention to them. Alec needed me at the moment.

"Brother." I whispered lovingly to my twin as I reached out and cupped his pained face in my hands carefully. "It will be alright. Now that you know, we're one step closer to stopping Aro. We just need more of our family to know." I stepped closer, ignoring the sound of Kingsley rushing forward and putting one hand on Chelsea's head and then on Santiago's, despite the latter's startled growl of warning and heard as they went silent for a while, "When we bring Kingsley with us to Volterra, he'll give Demetri, Rudolph and all of them our memories of what we know It won't be long before they turn against him."

My words didn't seem to do anything to assure him. He just remained with that distant and bewildered appearance.

Whatever I had to say next was brought to a halt as I heard one of Kingsley's coven mates call out in shock, "Hold it, hold it! Jane, you're turning against Aro? How the bloody hell did that happen? Alright, I firmly believe that the world is ending now."

I sighed. I was looking at Alec, so I couldn't tell who said it, but I could hardly blame him. I, Jane, the most loyal of Aro's soldiers, betraying him? Who would have thought that they'd live to see the day? I was Aro's most trusted warrior; to think that I'd turn on him was unimaginable, let alone causing an army to rise against him.

I pushed away my thoughts of any distractions and focused only on my Alec. "Can we go outside and speak for a while, brother?" I asked, making sure to never allow my tone of tender comfort to escape from my voice. Besides, it was instrumental to my plan. The other vampires in this room couldn't hear what we were coming up with, or else when Aro read their minds, our plans would be exposed in less than a second.

Alec nodded, though showing no sign of understanding where my thoughts were going, not that I blamed him, in the state that he was in.

I half thought that I should blame myself for the turmoil that was going on in his brain. But you know, considering Aro was the one that murdered Didyme and controlled our family with lies and fear for centuries and centuries, it only felt the more satisfying to blame him.

My hold on my brother's arms tightened as I started leading him outside of the castle, not once turning to any of the vampires around us, all staring.

However, Afton's yell behind us caught my attention.

"Jane, wait!" He called running after us. I heard Felix's footsteps thundering after him in our direction. As I pushed the doors open that led to the stone hallway. We needed to talk. The question became really; even if we all managed to convince everyone back in Volterra of what I had seen and heard, would Bella be in danger? Bella was the one that had started this whole investigation, after all.

My eyes narrowed. Yes, this whole time and I hadn't thought back to my Bella. Aro would despise her when he found out. For him, to think that Bella, a very recent vampire would affect me like this, not to mention the whole of our vampire world, would be astounding and unimaginable. Bella had always been a wonder. She had always made Aro curious as well. Perhaps this rebellion would only confirm his suspicions of how dangerous she is. He once told me how dangerous she was after the battle at the Cullens' lawn when we first saw her daughter; Renesme. Aro had truly been genuinely scared of Bella that day because of the young vampire's mental shield and her sheer will.

I couldn't stop a sadistic smile from blooming across my face. Good; Aro deserved to be full of fear, just like he forced everyone else in the world to be afraid of us Volturi under his reign.

I moved down the hall fast, thoughts rampant now. It always seemed so odd to me. Too perfect, really. Aro was the ideal leader in many ways. He was kind to all of us; treated us as if we were his own children. He was understanding to us and gave us someone to talk to, and when we did something that was out of line, he'd discipline us, but only to a certain extent. He had fairly tempestuous arguments with Caius when the latter wanted to actually hurt us as a form of punishment instead of using words.

Aro was what one would immediately think of if they tried to imagine a leader that was warm and cheerful and attentive to you. I had trusted him for centuries. He rescued Alec and I from the fires at that village when we were still human, and he raised me throughout my young "girlhood" as a newborn vampire.

That made it all the more horrifying to find out what he had truly done in the war with the Romanian vampire coven.

He led us on for all that time, lied to us, controlled us and murdered a beloved family member. And now he was trying to control the whole world of the vampires.

I think Alec and I might be more alike than I thought, for while I was thinking this, I heard him start to growl. "What is it Alec?" I asked, now worried but also not very surprised.

"How could he?" He whispered, voice hollow. "She was his sister. He grew up with her for decades before they were turned,…how could he?"

Alec's question was a terrible sound to listen to. Another thing I could hate Aro for: breaking my brother's heart. Alec had always looked up to Aro. After Marcus, Alec had seen Aro as the closest he and myself had to father. He taught us everything a newborn vampire needed to know, everything.

He had comforted us as we recovered from the terror we suffered every day and night after becoming a vampire that the villagers would burn us to ashes. We weren't capable of having nightmares, and yet the terrible thoughts about the magister of our town, pointing his finger at us viciously as we were tied to the wooden posts to be incinerated stayed fresh in our minds for almost five centuries before we moved on. Aro had truly been our guardian…..which made this all the more traitorous for us to realize what he had done.

Finally, after walking throughout the darkness of the halls, we reached the doorways to the outside. I could hear rain still pouring behind the thick wooden doors, and felt a smirk coming onto my face. Good, it was still gloomy outside. It wouldn't risk our skin being seen by humans then.

I shoved the doors open, trying not to flinch at the monstrous "creaking" sounds that came from the hinges. The doors were swung all the way open under my savage push and we were soon exposed to the scent of the cold, musky, rainy smelling air. I stared out at the sight of the open green fields before the castle, watching the rain come pouring down onto it, soaking the grass and roads. Perfect weather for vampires.

"Jane!" Felix snapped, now coming up till he was standing next to me, towering over both me and Alec, eyes filled with emotions akin to the ones that Alec's own eyes possessed. He looked so angry, and yet so vulnerable. I hadn't seen him this weak in a long time. The last time must have been when he had first been turned four-hundred-years ago. The only thing that had been worse for him than becoming a vampire, was learning that he could never go back to his human family with his parents and little sisters.

He had hated us for a long time because of what happened, but eventually saw us as his own family. Seeing him like this now made me very worried that it would bring back some old feelings.

"This whole time," Felix asked, voice shaky, despite his huge size, "He's been lying to us?" He then glanced outside to the rainy sky, "And Bella suspected this too. That's why she told you all that, right, Jane?"

My mind fluttered back to Bella. Yes, she had told me about Didyme because even though she hadn't had any evidence, she had been able to put the pieces together. My brilliant, courageous Bella. Pondering about Bella's motivations and actions however, would not help us. Unfortunately, though, thinking about her and what was to become of us was inevitable. The truth of the matter was that this was the only plan that I possessed. I had no back-up plan. I had no idea what we should do when it came to Bella. She and the rest of the Cullens would be in danger as well as we would be after this. Aro would more than likely target her, accusing her of being a traitor to the Volturi. Caius would just love having the excuse to kill the Cullen family.

So while my new conflicted feelings were by no means new or unexpected, I felt aggravated that I would still be experiencing these emotions when I had already trained myself mentally about what I was going to do when we got Kingsley to use my memories. I had told myself about the events that were going to happen. Kingsley would get my memories, transfer them to my family, and along with the Volturi that would turn against Aro and Caius, Kingsley himself and his coven would ally themselves with us because of Kingsley's rage towards Aro's underhanded acts, and we would go and protect Bella and her daughter from the impending attack from Aro and his remaining followers.

That all sounded good in theory, but how were we going to go about this? Besides myself for getting the Volturi to turn their backs on their former master, Bella would be the "number one" target of Aro's, now that she had gotten his once most loyal servant to turn against him. How were we going to protect her when we had to tiptoe around Aro the whole time, trying not to allow him to touch us and read our minds the whole damned time?

"Jane," Felix spoke and I was shocked at how weak he sounded, "What do we do?"

I sighed. I really had been hoping that I wouldn't be asked that for a while. Truth be told, aside from that half-assed plan that had just crossed my conscience, I had no clue what we could do in retaliation. "I don't know, Felix." I whispered, feeling fairly fragile myself now.

More unbearable thoughts were about to approach my mind when I smelled Chelsea and Santiago's scents coming closer. Ah, looked like Kingsley was done with them too. I didn't give them a chance to ask the agonizing questions that I knew were coming. I just spoke before either of them could, "We need to get ready. Aro will start wondering where we are." I stopped and listened to my siblings' reactions. None of the ones I got were good.

Chelsea made a very unpleasant hissing sound, and Felix tensed up next to me. I felt Alec grip my hand hard, tightening every second or so and Afton whispered under his breath, "Well, he won't be happy when we give him the answer. I'm going to kill him for taking Didyme from us."

I smiled, relieved, "Not yet you aren't," I answered, focusing on the rather flimsy "plan" I had in mind, "We need to get as many allies as we can. If we come charging into the castle, wanting Aro's death, we'll immediately be branded as traitors. We have to be tactful. But we need to figure out how to convince Kingsley's coven to come with us to Volterra."

"No need to try to convince me, Jane." Kingsley's voice boomed around the hallway, "I'm coming with you. And any of my coven that don't can leave now. Such injustice by Aro's own hands is unforgivable. That fiend, Aro will not escape punishment." His handsome, confident face fell apart and he contorted it into a look of rage, "Despicable. Aro and Caius hide under the masquerade of being righteous kings who will provide punishment for those that deserve it so that no one will know that they are scum. Even if I have to go all alone to Volterra, your family will know the truth."

I turned and looked at him. I couldn't prevent a smile. It warmed me, to be honest, to hear that he was willing to do that for us. I shouldn't be surprised, considering his chivalrous attitude towards things, but it was still comforting.

Santiago spoke up, catching all of our attentions, "I have to get back to Volterra, _NOW!_ Andrea is still there. She could be in serious danger from Aro and Caius."

I felt like I was about to smash my head through the stone walls. God damn it. I had completely forgotten about Andrea! I thought about trying to reassure him, however, being calm right now certainly didn't seem to be our forte at the moment. For as I was about to open my mouth to speak to him, Felix cut me off, "Yeah," He snapped, "And you heard the same thing I did. They're planning to kill Jane, Alec and Bella if they don't do as they say. They'll kill Jane if she shows any sign of disobedience and they'll kill Bella and Alec to make sure they don't get out of line either."

"No, they won't." Alec let out a deadly growl, his breath sending an unnerved chill through me.

I turned to him. His burning red eyes were intense and held a dark purpose. "No one will touch you, Jane. Or Bella. Not while I exist." That last sentence struck a chord in me. I snarled at him, my calm façade evaporating in that instant, "Don't you _ever_ say that, brother!" Alec seemed startled for a second but I didn't care. I continued, "Don't make it easier for Aro. You're not putting yourself in danger unless absolutely necessary." I made sure to put the "authority" back into my voice as I turned and stared again at Kingsley. "Can you gather all of your coven members and get them ready by this afternoon?" I asked urgently.

Kingsley just nodded. "Yes, I can." He said dutifully, "I will get everyone ready. We will go at your command, though keep in mind that I control this coven and if I see fit to kill Aro at a certain time, then we'll move in then."

I felt my temper flare, but I kept it in line. There was no use in getting angry at him. I had to be calm with him so that I could keep this alliance. "Very well," I started, another plan coming to mind, "But I need some time. As you saw, we're not the only ones involved in this. I have to call Bella and get her to flee Forks with her family, because Aro will see her as an enemy when he touches us and sees what she said to me."

Kingsley seemed to think for a moment, his strong jaw clenching in concentration. He then nodded, more at peace, it appeared. "Alright," He answered in a gentle tone, "I'll do that. But Jane, this isn't about you anymore. Now that I know this, I can't just sit back and do nothing. I'll leave that for the Americans when they do nothing until the fight is brought to their doorstep."

I tried not to laugh. Figures Kingsley would have a beef with the "Yanks." Kingsley was a very old vampire and went back far beyond the American Revolution, however, he protected the "Redcoats" during that time and hated the Americans with a passion.

I smirked, "Alright, Redcoat," I chuckled, "Calm down. I won't ask you to do nothing, just that you wait long enough for me to protect my mate and her family. Now, if you'll excuse me; I have to call Bella and tell her about this, so everyone be quiet for a few seconds." I reached under my black robes and into one of the pockets of my dark leather pants where my cell phone was hidden.

I didn't bother looking at the others while I retrieved the phone and flipped it open. "Andrea's safe, Santiago," I said nonchalantly, staring at the glowing screen in front of me from the device, "I got Felix to ask Aro to protect her so that no one would feed on her, cause I came up with the story that you'd become a liability if Andrea got harmed and I know he wouldn't want to risk that." I started dialing, focusing on the technological piece that was going to save my Bella.

Through the rain, I heard the ringing on the other side of the phone as loudly as I would thunder. After six rings, I heard the offending sound stop and then heard a disconnecting sound as I was calmed at the next sound, which was Bella's lovely voice.

"Jane?" Came Bella's confused questions, "What's going on? I just saw you. I'm not complaining, but why are you contacting me on my cell phone again so soon?"

I smiled sadly. I assumed there wasn't anyone around, or at least anyone that Bella knew personally, otherwise Bella would have had to run to a secluded spot. Then again, maybe she had. It had taken her a long time to answer, after all.

"Bella," I whispered, pained, "You were right. Aro can't be trusted. I listened in on him yesterday, and I heard him speak with Caius. They're planning to use me against you. If you don't obey, they will kill me."

I knew what type of reaction I'd get from that, but before Bella's shocked and terrified gasp could come out, I cut her off, "Listen, I got to a vampire that can see memories and put them in other peoples' heads," I knew how odd and vague that sounded and that Bella was probably now wondering if I had lost it, but I had to move quickly, "Alec, Felix, Afton, Chelsea and Santiago are all on our side now. They know what I know. It's alright; we have allies. But you and the Cullens need to hide or something. We're going to go back to Volterra and go against Aro, so Aro will know that it was you that started my suspicions. He'll target you."

I heard her breath hitch in confusion and I snapped without meaning to, "Damn it, Bella! Now's not the time to worry or ask more questions. Listen, do you think you can contact all those vampires that your family assembled years ago when we first met Renesmee? You know, the vampires from around the world?"

Bella made, what I assume was a startled sound as she said, "You mean the Denalis, the Amazons, and all the others? Yeah, I think so."

I knew how our conversation might have been seen by my family and by Kingsley, but this was urgent. "Okay," I started, thinking, "You contact them, tell them that the Volturi are out of control; that there are vampires going against them. The Romanians, I imagine will be especially happy to hear this."

I heard Bella gasp, and several other startled sounds around me. Couldn't say I blamed them. I was well known by almost all to hate the Romanians since our war with them. But, what was the use of it? The Romanians weren't even responsible for Didyme's death; her own brother was. What was the point in hating them when the crime that I had originally hated them for wasn't even committed _by _them?

I sighed, stressing my point to my mate in a desperate tone, "Bella, just tell me; were you serious when you said that you would stand against Aro so that he couldn't manipulate us anymore," I took a pause and glanced at Kingsley, his expression unreadable, "Because even if you aren't, I think I just started a revolution towards him."

Kingsley smiled in response to my choice of the word, "revolution." I found myself smirking back at him.

"Wait, wait," Bella drawled, getting my attention again, "A rebellion? Jane are you serious about this? You know Aro won't let you go back if you do this."

I let out a near helpless laugh, "Bella, it's already too late. I've chosen to go against him, and the others have as well. It's already too late to go back. The moment Aro touches any of them, he'll see their memories. Bella, we need to work fast."

After several moments of hesitation, Bella finally consented, "Alright. I'll get Renesmee and the others to hide. And all contact our allies. But Jane," Her voice deepened in seriousness, "You had better be serious about this."

My shoulders lowered from my now full sense of serenity. Good. We were closer to having at least some sort of army. But that didn't take Bella out of danger. Not at all.

"Bella," I whispered, hoping I didn't sound too desperate, "I,…..I don't want you to think that this is a doomed mission," I didn't want to seem like this was the last time we would speak to each other before wartime, "but our actions will more than likely lead to an all out vampire war. I just….I just want us to be realistic about this. We….," I hesitated and then sighed helplessly, "Just find a place to hide, and contact the vampires that stood with you years ago. I will see you soon."

"Jane…." Bella's voice trailed off and I cringed. I hated thinking that she would feel sorry for me. I hated thinking that.

I added one last thing before I realized that I couldn't take the tension anymore. I quickly said, "I'll see you soon. Don't get worried." I then hung up fast before she could say anything else.

The beeping noise of the phone rung in my ears as I cancelled our conversation and stared up at my brothers and sister, wondering what they were thinking….(not wanting to know what they were thinking.).

I let loose another sigh. We needed to proceed, didn't we? Kingsley certainly wasn't going to wait much longer.

I took a glance at my new official ally. "Hey, Kingsley? Ready to make yourself the number one enemy of the Volturi?" I grinned a little, knowing what his answer would be already.

"You know I am, Ms. Jane," Kingsley said in mock solemn, smirking as he bowed his head dutifully, "I want to stop Aro. I cannot abide by tyrants; I never was able to." I nodded, appreciative.

"So what then?" An angry voice demanded, and I saw Elena emerge from the shadows, "So we just barge into Volterra and get ourselves destroyed? That doesn't sound like a plan, Kingsley. You're smarter than that. I _followed_ a smarter Kingsley than that."

Anger sparked within me. We were at the brink of gathering an army to stop Aro and his followers, and Elena was getting in the way. "Now look here!" I snarled, my anger, as usual, getting the better of me, "Kingsley is your leader. He says you fight Aro, and you fight-"

"Jane!" Kingsley interrupted, voice strict once again, "What we are doing is starting a rebellion against someone for making us obey him without question. I will not do the same to my own coven and force them to obey _me_ without question." He gave me a meaningful look, "Part of being a leader is listening to the opinions of your coven, Jane."

I suspect that Kingsley's words were supposed to make me flinch. He almost succeeded. His words weren't without sting. I had been obeying Aro, without a second thought, for centuries now. I had been his little puppet; moving when he told me to do, talking when he told me to, killing when he told me to. I had shed so much blood under his command, and I had never even held the thought of disobeying him.

A mindless puppet; that's what I had been. His mindless slave.

I did the only mature thing I could think of doing. I glared at Kingsley.

Kingsley seemed to get the drill. He smiled sadly. "Easy Jane." He said quietly, "It's just, you get my point, don't you?"

I turned away, feeling embarrassed. Yeah, he had made his point. He had made his point all too well.

"Look," I growled, not wanting to think on more, "Are we going to go, or what?"

"Of course," Kingsley stating, seeming unaffected by my rage, "But Elena," He then turned to his coven-mate, "I understand that you are uncertain. If you want to stay, then you may. I doubt Aro will see you as responsible if you only stand by and do not participate in the battle. But I do have a plan of attack if you are interested."

Elena rolled her eyes; an action that I personally thought was unbefitting of her "proper lady" image. "Really, Kingsley?" She asked coldly, "You really think that I'm going to stand by while my leader and my mate and brothers and sisters in my coven go and get themselves killed? I'm coming with you, you fool. I'm just saying, we should plan out what we are doing. If you have a plan, then I'm all ears, but if you don't, don't expect me not to complain about it. But, I am going to follow you. I never liked Aro anyway. There was just something about him that always unsettled me."

I sighed, feeling depressed. Had I always been so blind? Had Aro just given off a feeling of a disturbing aura? Had I really not seen what he was really like? All this time; for sixteen centuries? God, I was stupid. Had my gratitude towards Aro for saving me, really allowed me to be that big of a fool?

I was distracted from my self-inflicted shame as Kingsley spoke up, "I'll tell everyone what I'm thinking when we get to the airport. But we need to hurry, before Aro becomes suspicious." He then looked at me, "The vampires that brought you here; Michael and the others? We, I suppose, should dispatch them. They're too dangerous to have around."

I nodded. My thoughts exactly. Those vampires had, to say the least, scared me. They were clearly dark and dangerous, not to be trifled with. So, how were we going to stop them?

I gave Kingsley a questioning look, and he smiled, clearly trying to give me confidence.

Santiago took this time to speak. "Look, not that I'm not grateful for this help, but we need to get going." He now had a panicked look, "I don't want to leave Andrea alone there any longer…and besides….we have to stop Aro."

I stopped my thoughts. Ah, I hadn't thought about my Volturi family's reaction to plans. In my fears and terror for Bella and her daughter, I had completely forgotton that Alec, Felix, Santiago, Afton and Chelsea were here. And they must have been silent this whole time; obviously too shocked and traumatized by this new revelation to say anything at all.

"And we will." Felix put in, his voice turning to a low, threatening growl.

"Well, then," Afton said, eyes still holding a disbelieving look over what he had discovered today, "Let's go. I want to see Didyme's murderer suffer, badly."

**Author's Note: **

**Okay, not much of Bella and Jane together here, but war is approaching, and get ready.**


End file.
